


Nick and Sara: A Family Story

by katydid13



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-24
Updated: 2006-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-08 10:25:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 53,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/442182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katydid13/pseuds/katydid13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fluffy Nick and Sara romance story with the humor and drama that two teens, one toddler, and a baby on the way bring to family life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nick and Sara: A Family Story

* * *

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

* * *

Nick smiled to himself thinking about Greg Sanders being someone's father as he headed home after helping Greg assemble nursery furniture for the baby that was due to arrive in a few weeks. Somehow it just did not fit the image of the guy he knew who had danced around the lab in a showgirl's headdress after processing it for hairs and fibers. This must be how older siblings feel about seeing their younger siblings grow up.

To an outsider or someone with more perspective, Nick knew that there was nothing odd about Greg and his wife Amy, who were professionals in their mid 30s and had been married for a couple of years starting a family. However, in a weird way, as much as Greg and now Amy were friends of Nick and his wife Sara, Greg had been kind of like their first child, in that he helped convince Sara that she did have maternal instincts.

Both Nick and Sara had helped train Greg to leave the lab and be a CSI. In spite of a few missteps, Greg was a quick learner and a talented scientist. Sara took particular pride in seeing him flourish. Nick could still remember the shocked and stunned look on Sara's face when Warrick made a joke about Sara's maternal pride in Greg.

What Warrick didn't know was that Nick and Sara were dating, casually at that time, but trying to decide if the relationship had long-term potential. They didn't want to let their co-workers (and some of their closest friends) in on their relationship if it wasn't going to go anywhere. One of stumbling blocks was the idea of marriage and children. Both, but especially parenthood, terrified Sara because of her background. She didn't think she was naturally maternal and it scared her.

The time that Greg was hurt by the group of teenagers out savagely beating up tourists held both very bad and very good memories for Nick. Bad because of what happened to Greg and the ugliness it revealed, but good because it allowed Sara to sort through some of her fears. She began to see that she could be protective of and nurturing to those she loved.

Of course things didn't go as smoothly as Nick might have hoped on the starting a family front. Since Sara was almost thirty-seven when they got married, they decided to start trying right away. Nick remembered how naive he had been then. He assumed Sara would stop taking the pill and in a few months, she would be pregnant. After all his mother had been almost forty when he was born. After six months of trying, they sought out advice from a specialist who was more that willing to do all sort of high tech procedures to help them conceive, but didn't really identify any problems other than the fact that Sara didn't necessarily produce viable eggs every month mostly likely due to age. Although he never admitted it to anyone, Nick spent some time kicking himself that he hadn't made a move to date Sara earlier. If he had, they might have gotten an earlier start.

Nick remembered making the decision to become foster parents and in the meantime let nature take its course. They both knew they wanted a baby that they could eventually adopt. Sara was the first one to suggest also taking in an older child who might not be available for or interested in being adopted, but need a permanent home. She told Nick that even if she had bonded with one family she wasn't sure she would have agreed to an adoption, but would have loved a family that considered her "theirs" even after she turned 18. Nick had never thought about the fact that Sara didn't have any parent like figures to call for advice or send her cookies her first year in college. That sold him on giving a home to an older child also. Nature never did do anything, but they had the family they wanted.

Lisa, now two, was their baby. The woman who gave birth to her was awaiting trial on manslaughter charges when Lisa was born. That woman named her, but Sara gave her first bottle and Nick changed her first diaper. Nick remembered how much that scared him even though he had been changing his nieces and nephews diapers since he was a teenager.

Lacey was fourteen. Nick and Sara brought her home from a crime scene. Her parents were both killed in a car jacking gone bad when she was eleven. Sara went with Lacey to the hospital, where a DCFS worker was supposed to meet them, because she needed to collect trace evidence from her parents. No caseworker showed up. Sara found out Lacey's only family was several great-aunts living in nursing homes. She found out that Lacey loved science. After the doctors confirmed that Lacey was fine, Sara called DCFS once more and informed them that she and her husband were licensed foster parents, had space, and she was taking Lacey home because had been through enough for one night. Almost three years later, she was still there. To make her great-aunts (who she did visit and always had) happy, they moved slowly on the adoption front. However, everyone knew Lacey wasn't going anywhere until she went to college.

Mike was fifteen. He came to live with Nick and Sara a little less than a year ago when his long-term foster parents had to relocate out of state for work. Since, he had lived not far from the Stokes house he was able to remain in the same school and made the transition with little problem. While Nick adored his daughters, he had to admit that he was enjoying having a sports loving, video game playing son. Mike tended to make sense to him, while his girls were sometimes a mystery, even after having grown up with five sisters.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 2

Nick pulled into the driveway, walked into the house. As soon as he walked in the house he was hit with the faint smell of formaldehyde. Nick briefly wondered why the house smelled like a lab, but then remembered that Monday was fetal pig test day. Lacey and her friends must be studying.

"Hello. How is the studying going?" asked Nick as he walked over to the dinning area where six 9th grade girls sat around the plastic covered table with two dissected fetal pigs and piles of notes.

"Good," replied all the girls in unison.

"So Lacey, where is everyone else?" asked Nick.

"Mike is playing basketball and Sara went to put Lisa down for a nap a while ago," replied Lacey.

"Thanks! Let me or Sara know if you need help" said Nick as he went off in search of Sara.

Nick found Sara curled up with Lisa and a pile of books on the toddler's bed. Both of them were fast asleep. They made a cute picture asleep together. Nick just stood there for a minute watching two of his favorite girls sleep.

Since things were relatively quiet, Nick decided he would go call his parents, something he had gotten much better at since Sara and he had started a family. Nick had a better understanding of his mother's need to check in once a week and he had discovered that between raising seven children and being grandparents over a dozen more that Jillian and Bill Stokes were a pretty good source of help whenever one of the kids had him stumped.

Nick went and settled himself in the easy chair in the corner of the master bedroom, picked up the phone and called his parents house.

Jillian Stokes answered to the phone "Hello, Stokes Residence."

"Hi Mom. How are you and Cisco?" replied Nick.

"We're real good Nicky. How are you, Sara, and all my grandkids?" asked Jillian.

"I'm fine. I helped Greg Sanders assemble nursery furniture today. The baby will be here soon. Lacey is working on baby blanket for the baby in the knitting club at school. I think Sara's coming down with something though, she picked at breakfast this morning, even for her, and she fell asleep with Lisa while putting her down for a nap. That's real odd for her."

"Well, it sounds like it might be a good night for you and the kids to handle dinner and clean-up. Sara wants to be superwoman so it's no shock that she gets a bit run down. Make sure you get a picture of Lacey's blanket with or without the baby for me. I want to see it."

"Yes, Mom, we'll make sure you get a picture. I promise to look after Sara. Lacey and her friends are here studying for the big fetal pig test. Sara told me she overheard that we are now the cool parents, at least among freshman in advanced bio, because we don't mind the pig in the house and because Gil loaned us some fetal pig anatomy flash cards. This might be our only shot at being the cool parents with any of our older kids."

"Now, Nicky, you and Sara are great parents! Why do you think this is your only shot at being cool parents?"

"Thanks, Mom. Unfortunately, the stakes for being a cool parent in the crowds that Mike runs with seem to involve not doing any actual parenting. Like last season, Mike and the rest of the basketball team got caught pulling a prank on a rival school. They were, um, decorating the school with toilet paper and shaving cream. Pretty standard kid stuff. The police officers that caught them brought them down to the station and called all the parents, the principal and the coach. Both Sara and I were working. It was my turn to work a weekend night and Sara was filling in for someone else. We were the first parents to arrive at the P.D. The boys were being held in a conference room. They got a lecture about defacing public property, assigned to clean it up the next day, the promise of lots and lots of laps from their coach and two mornings of before school detention from the principal. Nothing major that would go on their records or anything, but most of the other parents were livid not at the kids, but that anyone dared say anything to their children and that they had to do manual labor."

"Well, Nick some parent's just can't believe their children aren't perfect. You and Sara are doing the right thing. Did you add anything on to the punishment?"

"I know Mom. Sara and I added a little on. Mike had to spend the rest of his Saturday night running errands for the lab techs because we didn't have time to run him home. That meant he had to explain to almost everyone at the lab why he was there and what he did, which meant almost every adult he knows made some comment."

"Effective. What else is he up to?"

"Well, he seems to be doing well in school, I think he and Lacey are starting to act my like brother and sister. I swear he grows every time I turn around. It's not going to be too long before I never win when we play one on one in the driveway."

"Well Nick you are getting old. Now you know how your father felt when you were growing up. So what about Lisa?" asked Jillian with a bit of a smirk in her voice.

"Lisa's being two. She learns new words everyday and is starting to count. DCFS has finally located the birth father and talked him into turning over his parental rights. The birth mother is making one last ditch attempt to prevent her rights from being terminated, but since she will be in jail until Lisa is at least ten and has done nothing to stay in touch with her it's not going to work. She's saying she can't get a fair trial because the Clark County family court judges that don't know Sara and I personally, know us professionally. The judge thinks it's nuts, but is going to hear it. We've heard unofficially that he is doing that so that there is no room for questions."

"Don't worry, Nicky. That little girl is yours. I'm sure it will be fine."

"Thanks Mom. I have to go. Things are kind of quiet around here and I want to check out why. I love you! Say hi to Cisco for me."

"Bye Nicky. Love you too. Give my love to Sara and the kids."

Just as Nick walked out of the master bedroom, Lacey came bouncing over to him and says "Can I go to Jill's to make pizza and watch movies? Her mom invited us. She said we had been bugging you too long."

"Sure, you can go to Jill's, but you and your friends are always welcome here," replied Nick. Jill's parents had become friends with Nick and Sara. It turned out that Jill's dad had been friends with Warrick since they were in high school. Nick liked it when Lacey was there because he knew that there will be actual adult supervision.

"I know Nick. Thanks!" said Lacey while giving Nick a hug.

As Lacey retreats, Nick yelled, "Call if you are going to come home before 11:00, otherwise someone will pick you up then."

"Niiiick," whined Lacey. "It's only three blocks and I'm not a baby."

"Lacey, someone picks you up or you don't go" answered Nick.

"Fine" replied Lacey, who walked off thinking how unfair it is to have a dad who sees danger everywhere.

Just as Nick was about to go check on Sara and Lisa, the phone rang. It was Karen Anderson, the mother of Kevin, Mike's good friend and basketball teammate and Katy, Mike's girlfriend. She said that Katy is spending the night at a friend's, so Kevin would like to have Mike over to spend the night. The Andersons and Stokes agreed that things like this should be cleared directly through the parents because none of them are comfortable with the idea of co-ed slumber parties for fifteen-year-olds.

Nick went to the kitchen to start thinking about what to make his suddenly smaller family for dinner. Nothing inspired him.

Nick decided that he should wake Lisa up or they would never get her to sleep that night.

Nick walked into Lisa's room and found that she is sitting on the floor quietly looking at her books. Sara was still asleep. He gets down on the floor next to Lisa and says "Hi kiddo. Let's go down stairs so we don't wake mommy," as he picks her up.

Lisa nodded and said "Yes, Daddy" in what passes for a whisper to a two-year-old.

"Blocks Daddy?" asked Lisa as they get downstairs.

"Sure pumpkin," replied Nick as he pulls out a box of blocks and sits down to build with his daughter.

Sara woke up and came downstairs. "Hi Nick. I can't believe I slept, let alone so long. Where is the rest of the crowd?"

Nick got up off the floor and went over to Sara and kissing her before answering, "Well, you must have needed the sleep. Mike is at the Anderson's for the night. I spoke with Karen. Katy is spending the night at a friend's. Lacey is at Jill's until 11:00 when we have to pick her up. Sara are you sure you are feeling ok?"

"Nick, I'm fine. I was feeling a little off this morning and obviously, I slept, but I'm feeling fine now. Am I correct that we might actually have some grown-up time between when we put Lisa to bed and when we pick up Lacey?"

"Yes, we will have some adult time. I was thinking that we feed Lisa an early dinner and after she goes to bed, we could order some Chinese food, open a bottle of wine, and have a night like we used to. In fact, I bet if we called Don and Mary, Lacey could spend the night."

"Sounds like a good idea. I'll call Mary right now," replied Sara.

About an hour later, Lisa was finished playing with Mom and Dad and asked for dinner. "Hungry," said Lisa.

"Sure peanut! Why don't you help me pick?" replied Nick.

Nick and Lisa settled on macaroni and cheese and carrot sticks for dinner. Lisa was not very excited about the carrot sticks, but Nick's no nonsense dad glare shut down a potential power struggle. Until Nick started dating Sara, he would have considered macaroni and cheese a perfectly acceptable supper, but he knows Sara is right.

Nick was cutting up carrots and boiling water for the noodles, while Lisa mimicked him at her little kitchen set in the corner of the kitchen. She loved to cook while her parents cooked.

Sara went to take a shower and change into something that made her feel just a little sexier. Nothing drastic, just maybe a bra and panties that matched and a top not picked to help with fetal pig dissection, house cleaning, and resistance to whatever a toddler could dish out.

The shower felt wonderful and relaxing. Very soon, Sara was standing in front of her closet wrapped in a towel. She had already pulled a matching lace bra and panty set out of the bottom of her underwear drawer. She couldn't be sure of the last time she wore it, but remembered that Nick has drooled over it. Not that she and Nick didn't have an active sex life (especially for a couple with three children) but things were a little more routine. No more trails of clothes from the living room to the bedroom or making out in front of the fireplace. No more sleeping naked, because falling asleep naked inevitably meant a child knocking at the door sick or scared.

Sara learned early on while being a foster parent that while older children woke you infrequently they were either very scared, very sick or were coming to tell you about another scared or sick child. Plus, tweens and teens were very quick to pick up on the fact that they might be interrupting something when the door was locked and it took a minute or so to answer. They didn't mind all that much, but it tended to embarrass the kids and make them less likely to come to Nick and Sara. Having the kids feel free to come to them was important to Sara and Nick. The both knew that traumatic events produce nightmares and that adult or child they are no fun to go through alone.

When Sara and Nick decided to be foster parents, they decided that every child that came through their home would feel safe, cared for, important, and part of the family. Sara had been amazed at the degree to which Nick's nieces and nephews assumed they were the center of their parent's world. They were well-mannered kids and did their best not to interrupt adults, but assumed that skinned knees, nightmares, having mastered riding a two-wheeler or learned to shoot a three pointer were things that their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents considered important too. They were right in most cases. To Nick this was perfectly normal, but since Sara spent her time at home and in foster care trying not to be too much trouble she thought this was special.

Sara finally settled on a black v-neck top and a pair of gray pants. It was not too dressy, didn't look too much like she was planning to seduce her husband, nothing that would look too out of place if one of the kids came home or someone stopped by.

Sara went into the family room. Lisa was sitting at the coffee table coloring and Nick was sitting on the couch watching a baseball game. Sara joined Nick on the couch. He put his arm around her, pulled her in for a kiss, and whispered in her ear, "you look very nice Sar'. Do you want to order dinner or give Lisa a bath in about half an hour?"

Sara thought and replied, "Let's let Lisa pick, since I'm not in the mood for a battle of wills." She put her head on Nick's shoulder and spent the next thirty minutes talking with Lisa about what she was drawing and enjoying being close to Nick.

"Lisa it's time for your bath. Do you want me or Daddy to give it to you?" asked Sara.

"Mommy!" said Lisa.

"O.K. kiddo let's go get you in the tub!" replied Sara.

Lisa liked getting a bath and eagerly ran up the steps to the kid's bathroom. Sara followed. Nick went to order dinner.

Sara coaxed Lisa through her bath rather quickly. They headed to the bedroom, where they found Nick waiting with a story (short) in his hands, a glass of water ready, and the key stuffed animals located. Sara smiled knowing that Nick wanted to be alone with her just as much as she wanted to be with him.

When they got back downstairs, Sara discovered that Nick had been busy while she gave Lisa a bath. The table was set with the good china and fancy chopsticks that had been a wedding gift. Serving bowls were out for the food and two wine glasses were ready. Nick had turned down the lights, put some music on the stereo, and lit some candles.

"Wow," said Sara. "You aimed a little higher than I was thinking of when you said Chinese food, a bottle of wine, and a night like we used to have. I like it."

"I'm glad Sara. I thought I'd make it more like dinner in a nice restaurant. Deciding to ignore dinner, make love on the couch, and then reheating the food later with me in my boxers and you in my shirt seemed a bit impractical given Lisa is still in the house and you never know if one of the other kids will show up unexpectedly. I'd really rather wait a few years to explain the birds and the bees to Lisa. Actually, I'd rather never have the conversation with my little girl, but I suspect you won't le me out of it."

"Come dance with me," asked Nick before Sara had a chance to say anything.

Nick and Sara held each other close and swayed to the music.

Sara addressed Nick's earlier comments saying "Good thinking on keeping things in the living room G or at least PG rated. I'm not ready to explain the birds and the bees to Lisa either, but you are right, you are not getting out of that conversation. She's still my baby too. Let's not talk about the kids anymore."

Then the doorbell rang indicating their food had arrived. Nick answered the door and paid the delivery person. Sara put the food in the serving dishes. Then they both sat down to eat.

Nick and Sara talked and laughed. They didn't talk about cases and they didn't talk about the kids. They talked about politics, movies they wanted to see, and Greg, Amy and the preparations for the baby. They talked about people at work like how nice it was to have Grissom in Ecklie's job (with Catherine as his right hand woman handling more administrative issues), the antics of the younger, less senior CSIs who had taken over grave yard a couple of years ago, and whether or not Catherine and Warrick would get together now that his divorce from Tina was final.

As Sara stood up to help Nick, clean-up, she felt a little dizzy and sat back down for a minute. "Wow, that wine must have hit me kind of hard. I was a little dizzy there for a minute. You can tell we don't do this much anymore."

"Sar' you were always a bit of a light weight. Are you sure you are feeling ok?" asked Nick.

Sara replied "Nick, I'm fine. Really. I am a bit of a light weight though."

"Sara, I'm going to suggest we adjourn to the bedroom, rather than start a movie we know we won't watch. Is that ok with you?"

"Of course it's ok with me," replied Sara. "I've been planning on this all evening. I even dug something I know you liked, but haven't seen in awhile out of my underwear drawer."

Sara's statement caused Nick to sweep Sara off her feet and carry her off to the master bedroom.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 3

Awhile later, Nick and Sara lay tangled up in bed together sated and happy. They were enjoying talking and holding each other. It was nice not to have feel like they needed to hurry and get up or hurry and go to sleep so they could function the next day.

"Nick," said Sara. "This was really nice. I feel like we got the chance to reconnect and recharge. We should do this more often. Arranging for all the kids to be gone might be a challenge, but I bet we could do a slightly better job of asking one of the older kids to watch Lisa and go out for dinner.

"I like the way you think, Mrs. Stokes. We really should make more time for each other. I know we wanted to be careful about how much babysitting we expected from the older ones, but a bit more might not be out of line. Now, I think I'd like to spend some more time kissing my beautiful wife," said Nick.

Sunday morning Nick woke up very early when he realized that Sara was no longer in bed with him. Minutes later he heard the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. He quickly went to the bathroom to find Sara hunched over the toiler throwing up. Nick held her hair back and rubbed her back until she was done. Then he handed her a glass of water so she could rinse her mouth out.

"Sar' don't even try to tell me you are fine. You were exhausted yesterday and a little green looking. Now you are throwing up. You are sick honey." "You need to stay home tomorrow and go see a doctor."

"Nick, I'm sure it is just a 24 hour bug or something. We'll see tomorrow. I will go back to bed though.".

"Let me help you back to bed. I'll get you some ginger ale and soda crackers. We'll deal with tomorrow later," said Nick in a soothing tone.

After getting Sara some ginger ale and soda crackers, Nick got up and showered so he could intercept Lisa before she came to join Sara and Nick for her morning snuggle. While, Nick and Sara have always been firm that Lisa sleep in her own bed at night, she was allowed to come snuggle with them in the morning before it was time to get up as long as it was after 6:00 am. This was purely a policy of self-preservation. Lisa was an early riser and this allowed Nick and Sara a little more sleep (or at least rest) especially on weekends.

Until a few months ago, Nick, who was more of a morning person than Sara, would sometimes roll Lisa's high chair up to the powder room off the family room and she would watch him shave while she ate cheerios off the tray. In the last few months, Lisa had discovered PBS Kids on TV. That was more interesting than watching her daddy shave. He was already beginning to loose her to other men like Bert, Ernie, and whoever that guy on Blue's Clues was. Nick mentioned this to his brother Will once. Will laughed at his younger brother and told him to just wait because it got worse. At that time, Will was still dealing with the fact that his daughter Julie (who was 28) had just moved with her fiancé Robert. As he told Nick "Robert is a great guy and he really loves Julie, but I liked being the most important man in her life. Plus, it's much harder to pretend that my little girl has never had sex.."

As Nick was dressing he noticed that Sara was awake again. He leans over and said "Sara, I'm going to take Lisa out for breakfast with me and to run some errands once she wakes up. OK?" A very sleepy Sara replies "yeah." Or at least that's what Nick thinks she said. He figures he should leave a note in case she didn't remember any of this once she woke up.

Just as Nick leaves the room and shuts the door behind him, he hears Lisa come charging down the stairs.

"Hey, peanut! Mommy is not feeling real good, so let's get you dressed and we can go out for breakfast and run some errands. OK?"

"O.K. Daddy!"

Nick helped Lisa get dressed and ready to go. He was not entirely sure if the outfit matches, but he thought it looked ok He was again very happy that Sara decided that a cute little wash and dry wedge cut suited Lisa. He saw Bobby Dawson try to learn to use those things little girls use in their hair with his daughter and is positive that he and Lisa would not be on speaking terms if he had to figure those hair thingeys out every morning.

Bobby and his partner, Steve, lived about a block or so away from Nick and Sara with their little girl, Maddie, who is almost seven now. Sara taught Bobby and Steve how to use a curling iron to give Maddie ringlets for her ballet recital and helped Maddie with her nail polish. Bobby and Steve provided Nick with occasional practical advice on being a hands on dad in a world that still assumed small children were always be accompanied by mom. For example, they pointed out the virtues of places with restrooms made for one person at a time for a dad with a little girl who was still potty training or newly trained. A couple of local restaurants were favorites of Nick's for that reason.

Nick and Lisa ended up having breakfast a McDonald's because Lisa loved the play ground there. Nick was not a huge fan of McDonald's breakfast food, but he adored his daughter. Plus, he thought the McDonald's play land was a great place for Lisa to burn off some energy. While the CSI in him didn't like to think what must be lurking in the giant ball pit, the fact that it is a controlled space with one entrance and one exit appealed to him.

On the way home from McDonald's, Lisa fell asleep in her car seat. That cut into Nick's plans to run errands since he knew that waking Lisa up to go anywhere with him would just result in a crabby little girl and frustrated daddy. Instead, Nick got her out of her car seat with practiced eased, carried her upstairs, took her shoes off and laid her in bed for a nap without waking the little girl.

Nick came downstairs to find Sara in the living family room reading the paper. Sara smiled at Nick and asked "Did you and sleeping beauty have a nice morning together? What kind of junk did she convince you to feed her?"

"Sar', we had a nice nutritious breakfast of orange juice, pancakes and sausage, followed by exercise at McDonald's play ground this morning. I would never feed our daughter junk."

"Right. That's why I had to be the one to reintroduce fruits and vegetables into your diet."

"Seriously, Sar'. How are you feeling?"

"Nick, I'm fine. I ate the crackers and drank the gingerale and went back to sleep. I was fine when I woke up. I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me."

"O.K.," replied Nick in a tone that indicated that it wasn't really ok but he wasn't going to argue anymore. "Have Mike or Lacey reappeared yet?"

"Yes, both of them are back and both of them went to their rooms where I suspect they are getting the sleep they didn't get last night."

Since Lisa's nap had put a dent in Nick's errand running and it was his turn to go grocery shopping, he decided that he would order groceries online to be delivered the next evening. He sat down at the computer and then did his shopping and then decided he'd check his email.

Nick smiled when he saw that he had email from his niece Julie. Nick was about 12 when Julie was born and they always had a relationship that was more like siblings than like a traditional uncle/niece relationship.

_From:._

_To: What to tell Mama and Dad?_

_Dear Uncle Nicky—_

_I could really use your advice. I'm pregnant and I'm afraid to tell Mama and Dad. Well not so much, Dad, but Mama for sure. I know I sound like I'm 16 and not 28 with a wedding scheduled in several months, but you know my mother._

_This was a little unexpected, but Robert and I are thrilled. I really am happy about this. I want to be a mom so bad. We had planned to wait until after the wedding to start a family, but apparently nature disagreed._

_Before you get all protective on me, yes I have seen a doctor. I'm about six weeks a long. You can thank our chief of staff for dragging me over to the Capitol Physician's Office for a test after two days of finding me puking in the ladies room in the mornings and noticing that I was really tired. The thought hadn't even occurred to me. I mean I had just gone off the pill so I didn't expect to be regular, plus we were using condoms. (By the way did I ever thank you for the ones you slipped in my purse before my senior prom after the lecture about any boy worth having respecting me? I carried them around until they expired, but good girl that I was had no use for them until much later. Once the whole family knows about this baby feel free to use this miscalculation in lecturing Mike and Lacey. Or maybe I can, I'd love to fill the role of cool adult in their lives.)_

_Mama still likes to remind me that I was a honeymoon baby who was just a little premature. She's not at all thrilled with the fact that Robert and I live together. She made lots of noise about not telling Grandma and Grandpa about that. She's even made a couple of snarky remarks about how she deserved to wear a white dress unlike other brides in this family._

_Any thoughts on dealing with Mama?_

_Love,_

_Julie_

Nick was happy for Julie, but annoyed that his sister-in-law had become such a high and mighty twit that her grown, engaged daughter was afraid to tell her that she was going to be a grandmother. It wasn't like she was sixteen and pregnant, she was grown woman getting married in the next couple of months.

Nick picked up the phone and tried to call Julie both at home and at work. He left messages for her at both places. Since he couldn't reach her, he decided to reply to her email.

_From: ._

_Subject: re: What to tell Mama and Dad?_

_Dear Julie—_

_Congrats! It's wonderful that you and Robert are expecting. I know you think this is a little early, but trust me, it's much better than finding out you waited too long._

_I left you messages, so please call me back and we can talk more about this. I'll tell Sara, but you can count on us to keep your secret._

_Your mother is delusional. Clearly she has been lying so long that she believes it. I'm pretty sure you were not a honeymoon baby and you were not premature. From what I remember you were the biggest of all the Stokes babies at almost 10 lbs. Preemies generally don't weigh in that large._

_How do I know that you weren't the largest preemie on record? Well, the short answer to that is it's Cisco's fault. Your father was living at the ranch that summer and your mother was living with her parents while they looked for a place to live after the wedding. I turned 11 that summer and Cisco decided it was time for me to get "the talk." He also decided that everyone involved (really him) would be much more comfortable if he delegated some of it to your father. Cisco outlined the basics. Gave me a book and told me to ask your father if I had any questions._

_As you can imagine, your father was thrilled with being given that responsibility, but he was a good sport about it. He found me some time after Cisco and I talked, commiserated with me about how embarrassing the talk with Cisco was and said he'd answer any questions I had. To give you an idea of how openly we discussed this, your father and I had this conversation at night in the dark in the bunk beds in my room. Your dad's room had been taken over by one of the girls so he moved in with me for the summer._

_Privacy was not something there was much of in the house that summer. I didn't want any of my sisters to catch me reading that book so eventually, I took it out to the barn and the highest level of the hayloft. I actually didn't care that much about reading it, until one rainy day. Apparently, I was not the only person in the family feeling the lack of privacy at the ranch that summer. I heard noises from the lower hayloft and peered over the railing, only to see your parents in the middle of making love. (So I don't know why your mother is all high and mighty about wearing a white dress.) As soon as I figured out what I was seeing I went and hid. I was a little confused because the book selected by Jillian and the talk as given by Cisco was very clear that sex was for married people and that sex meant a baby would follow in nine months._

_I waited up for your father to come to bed that night. I told him what I saw and heard then bombarded him with questions. I think he wanted to the floor to open up and swallow him. After making me swear not to say anything to anyone, he explained that it was fine since he and your mother were getting married that summer and explained about birth control._

_I know that at several of the showers and teas held at the ranch before the wedding that your mother ended up dashing to the bathroom to throw-up. Everyone made noises about it being nerves, but your grandmother Stokes was on a mission to make sure your mother never had any alcohol either. In fact, I remember hearing her talk to the caterer for the rehearsal dinner about who got champagne and who got sparkling cider. Your mother, along with me and my sisters who were under 21 were on the list._

_Old Dallas Society, which your mother bought into with a vengeance, was very demanding about some things. I suspect that one's reason your parents married so soon after your mother finished school. It was one of the only ways for them to have sex outside the hay loft or the backseat of a car. I also suspect that none of the older members of the family thought you were the largest preemie ever. I also know that your parent's wedding was planned for a good year before it happened so they didn't get married because of you._

_As far as your mother's comment about not telling Grandma and Grandpa about you living with Robert, it's possible that her parents don't know, but your Stokes grandparents do know. They are so proud of you and your work. (Even if you did have to go work for democrats.) They have nothing but nice things to say about Robert. While you are the first of their grandchildren to live with someone of the opposite sex they are not married to, that's only because you are the oldest. Except for maybe Karen and Cole, who married right out of college, all your other aunts and uncles on the Stokes side spent sometime "living in sin" before we married. It was planning to start a family that prompted Sara and I to make it legal. Cisco and Jillian may have mellowed over the years but having a baby with no plans to marry might still raise their ire._

_Congrats Julie! You and Robert will be wonderful parents._

_Love,_

_Nick_

_P.S._

_You know that you don't need to call me Uncle Nicky anymore. Nick is just fine. You are a grown-up. I have colleagues and friends your age. The baby can call me Uncle Nick. If you have the baby call me Great Uncle Nick then I'm going to tell your mother the secrets of your youth._

Nick printed out Julie's email and his response to show to Sara. He wanted to fill her in and make sure that he didn't put his foot in it somehow.

Just as he was picking up paper from the printer, parts of Julie's email struck him. She had been tired and throwing up in the morning. Just like Sara. Could Sara be pregnant? They had pretty much written that possibility off. Of course they weren't doing anything to prevent the possibility either. He couldn't remember when Sara last had her period, but then again she had never really been regular off the pill. Could Julie be getting a cousin about the same age as her own baby?

* * *

**Chapter 4: Chapter 4**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 4

Sara was still in the family room reading the paper. Mike and Lacey were competing at a Nintendo game and Lisa was watching.

Nick walked over to Sara and whispered in her ear "I've got family gossip not be to discussed in front of the kids. Julie needs advice. Come talk to me in the bedroom?"

Sara joined Nick in the bedroom a couple of minutes later. "What's up?"

"Julie is pregnant, thrilled, and doesn't know how to tell her parents, especially her mother."

"Well, that's good news! Why doesn't she know how to tell her parents Nick? The wedding's still on right? Robert's happy isn't he?"

"Well Sar', Julie's mother has a bit of a stick up her butt and Julie is afraid Christine will freak because they aren't married yet. I've got Julie's email and my response for you to read if you want, but first I need to ask you something."

"Of course. What do you want to know Nick?"

"Well, Julie's email made me think. Is it possible? You kind of sound like her with the exhaustion and the morning sickness. When was your last period? Could you maybe be pregnant?"

Sara sits on the bed in stunned silence for a minute, while Nick joins her.

"It's been about six weeks since my last period, I think, maybe. But I was never regular off the pill. I guess it's possible that's why I've been tired, a little dizzy and nauseous lately. I don't know. I mean it's been years and nothing. Can you go get a test at the drugstore?"

"Sure Sar', I'll go. Either way is fine, but if you are I'd be thrilled."

"Me too, but I don't want to hope too much. It's too hard if its not."

"Listen, why don't you read the emails and I'll run to the drugstore."

A while later, Sara and Nick are sitting on the bed waiting for the kitchen timer to go off so they can check the test and see if they are going to have a baby.

Sara breaks the silence saying "So it sounds like you got an interesting introduction to the facts of life. I'm guessing that demonstration was not what Cisco had in mind?"

"Ah, no it certainly was not. So what was Sara Sidle's introduction to being a woman like?'

"Well, my mom let school handle the talk. I actually got my period the first time while I was in the group house waiting for a foster home. When, I asked the girls dorm councilor for supplies and it was clear that I didn't know exactly what I wanted she figured out it was my first time and told me to be careful not to get myself knocked up. It was fine, just not the stuff of Judy Blume books."

Nick recognized the mask that goes up on Sara's face as a cue not to say anything, he settles for putting his hand on her shoulder. He remembers that Sara spent time in a group home right after her mother killed her father so she must have been just thirteen. Clearly, no one was looking after her emotional well being. He knew that Sara and Lacey did something to mark the occasion while he was working a double shift. Sara told him about it and when he went to say good night to Lacey, he told her that she might be growing up, but that she would always be his girl and planted a kiss on the top of her head. He has no idea what his mother may have said to his sisters, but he is sure that the phrase "knocked up" was not included since he can't see that come out of his mother's mouth. Plus, as awkward as the subject of sex was for his parents to bring up with their children they never tried to make it seem shameful. In fact, Nick remembered Cisco telling him after the visit with the fertility specialist never to let the quest for children take the joy out of making love to his wife. He also reminded him to make time for him and Sara to be a couple after they brought Lacey home with them.

The timer rang. Nick followed Sara into the bathroom and looked over her shoulder at the stick with the plus sign on it. He spun her around into a hug and said 'We did it. We are going to have a baby."

Sara snuggled into his arms and smiled while tears of joy streamed down her face. They stayed like that a few minutes.

Then they started to talk about what they would do next. Sara promised to call her doctor first thing to make an appointment. She'll have a blood test run tomorrow at the lab and ask Catherine to find a way to keep her in the office doing paper work until they know for sure. There are a handful of tests that CSIs and lab techs can ask to have run on them no questions asked because the results would either limit their work (like pregnancy would require the avoidance of certain chemicals or kinds of evidence collection) or where their work has put them at risk of potential exposure like HIV, hepatitis, or meningitis. It's less expensive for the lab to do the work themselves than to have the city health plan pay for it and no one misses any work for the tests.

Catherine would keep Sara's confidence. The women have become closer due to having motherhood in common. Catherine remembered when Lindsey was Lisa's age with fondness and has helped them navigate some the tween/teen angst Lacey and now Mike bring to their lives.

Now it's just getting the lab work done with minimal gossip that is key. The lab rats are very good a keeping mum about test for serious diseases, but pregnancy tests send the gossip mill into overtime. Even when there is really no good gossip, such as when a married CSI/ lab tech who is known to want children has a pregnancy test run. Professionalism gets thrown out the window.

Sara thought she had a plan. She asked Nick to get the tools for a blood draw from one of their kits. He'll draw her blood in the morning and then she will see if Greg can come in early to run the test. While, Greg is rarely in the lab these days, it does happen and he won't let anyone near Sara's test results. Nick agreed.

Sara picks up her phone to call Greg. She dials.

"Sanders."

"Hi Greg, its Sara."

"Hey, Sara. Aren't you off tonight? Why are you calling on my cell?"

"I am off, but I need a favor. Can you come in a bit early tomorrow and run some personal blood work for me? Nick and I are pretty sure I'm pregnant. We have a positive home test and would like a blood test to confirm. I'll have Nick do the draw."

"Anything for you two. It would be awesome if you are pregnant! Our kids would be about the same age. I thought they decided you guys couldn't get pregnant and you guys gave up trying."

"Greg, it would be pretty awesome. Technically, they never said never. They just didn't think it was likely without medical intervention. We weren't exactly trying, but we weren't exactly preventing either."

"It will be nice to be able to remind the lab rats that I do know their job so they can only bluff me so much. I'll make sure no one finds out besides you two. Although, I do have to tell Catherine or Grissom if it is positive, but I'll let you two do that."

"Thanks Greg! See you tomorrow. Say hi to Amy!"

"Sar' I think we should wait on telling Mike and Lacey until we have a blood test. I know that false positives are rare on those home test, but still."

"Of course Nick. I think that if we tell Mike and Lacey we need to make sure they don't tell Lisa or the general public until I am farther along. She doesn't have the patience to wait eight more months. We can tell your parents and Julie even since she helped us figure it out as soon as we know. If Greg, Grissom and Catherine know, you should tell Warrick either way. However, I'd like to wait until I'm at least 13 weeks along to tell everyone else. I'm rather old to be having my first baby. It will be high risk."

"Whatever you want Sar'. Remember that part of the reason you would be considered high risk is that it used to be very, very rare for a woman to have her first baby after her mid 30s. It's built on the premise that we have been trying for almost 20 years not five years. I'm sure you will be fine."

Nick and Sara rejoined the kids in the family room and continued on the traditional Sunday routine of newspaper reading, homework supervision, and family dinner. Sara ended up taking another nap on the couch. They both kept smiling like they had the biggest most exciting secret in the world because they did. Luckily, Lisa didn't notice because she was two and Mike and Lacey didn't notice because as teenagers they were kind of self absorbed.

_Sorry this was kind of short, but it was a good place to break_.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Chapter 5**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 5

Monday morning, Nick was scrambling eggs for breakfast, while Mike and Lacey packed their lunches. (Nick and Sara had the kids pack their own lunches because everyone had very specific preferences.) Nick heard the sounds of Sara throwing up from the bathroom. He dropped the spatula on the stove top and said "One of you guys watch the eggs. I'm going to go check on Sara."

Nick held Sara's hair and rubbed her back until she stopped throwing up. He smiled at Sara saying "I'll get crackers and ginger ale. Go back to bed. I'll bring Greg the blood and we'll call when we know something. Although, I think we know what it will say. You can come in when you are not likely to throw-up on the evidence."

Sara scowled at Nick, but got back in bed.

Nick went back into the kitchen. Mike and Lacey were eating scrambled eggs, while Lisa was eating cheerios. As Nick went to get the ginger ale and crackers he said "that's for finishing breakfast and feeding Lisa. Sara's not feeling real well, so I'm going to bring her this."

Nick came back to kitchen to eat his own breakfast. Mike and Lacey were still eating, but Lisa had gone to watch tv in the living room.

"Nick is Sara pregnant?" asked Lacey. Mike just looked stunned.

Nick decided to stall for time in hopes that wisdom would come to him. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," said Lacey rolling her eyes like Nick was kind of stupid, "she threw up this morning, she's looked real green a couple other mornings and she keeps falling asleep. Amanda who was in my home room last year acted the same way when she was pregnant."

Stalling Nick realized had just made things worse. He had been expecting answer like health class or television. He was not expecting his fourteen year old to tell him that she knew this from the personal experiences of one of her classmates back when they were in middle school. In his mind the only pregnant women Lacey should know were friends of his and Sara's, teachers, friend's mothers, and well other people who were GROWNUPS.

Nick took a deep breath and said "We think she might be. We were going to confirm it with a blood test today. We are really excited about this, but we wanted to know for sure before we said anything to you guys. Please don't say anything to Lisa yet. If Sara is pregnant she's not very far along and Lisa can't really understand something that is going to happen that far enough the future. You know this doesn't change how we feel about you guys or your place in this family. How do you guys feel about this?"

Lacey practically squealed "This is just awesome. Can I help with the baby?"

"Well of course. You'll be the big sister."

Mike just looked a little uncomfortable and smiled and said "That's cool Nick."

"Well, we'll talk about this some more tonight after Lisa goes to bed, assuming there is something to talk about. Now you guys better get moving to catch your bus."

Nick hugged Lacey as she walked by him to grab her lunch. When Mike did the same thing he ruffled Mike's hair and dropped his arm round his shoulders for a minute in a manly approximation of a hug. Mike was not big on casual hugging.

Nick then told Lisa they were leaving in a few minutes and went to check on Sara. Sara had fallen back to sleep, so he decided to fill her in later. He grabbed the vial of blood and stuck it in his pocket.

Finally, Nick met Greg in an empty lab and gave him the vial. Greg sensed that Nick had might need to talk and said "So where is Sara? You look like you have had a rough morning."

"Sara went back to bed after throwing up. I'm going to call her when we have answers. It has been an interesting morning."

"I'm glad Amy is past the throwing up stage. That was rough. What made this morning interesting?" asked Greg as he began the test.

"Well, Sara and I decided we were going to tell Mike and Lacey this evening if the test is positive. However, Lacey heard Sara throwing up and asked if she was pregnant. Since, I didn't know what to say I stalled for time and asked her why she thought so. So I was treated to hearing my fourteen year old tell me that Sara was acting just like one of the girls in her class did last year when they were thirteen when she was pregnant. Do you think it is too late to find a convent somewhere for Lacey? Maybe one with a pre-school for Lisa?"

"Thirteen? When I was thirteen the fast girls were the ones that were rumored to let guys french them. Maybe I should be looking into convents with pre-schools in case the baby is a girl?"

"Tell me about it. It wasn't until eleventh grade that there was even locker room talk among the football players that anyone had gone all the way and most of them were lying."

"Well, Nick it looks like your little swimmers got the job done. Go call your wife and tell her she is indeed pregnant! Congrats! Don't worry, I will keep mum until you announce it."

"Thanks Greggo!" said Nick grinning from ear to ear.

Nick called Sara. He filled her in on the morning. He included Lacey's guess that Sara was pregnant, but left out the part about her classmate until they had more time to talk. She told him she was feeling better, was on her way in and that he should go ahead and tell Catherine and Grissom before assignments so they could plan accordingly. Then Nick would track down Warrick, let him know and swear him to secrecy except for Greg, Grissom and Catherine.

Both Catherine and Grissom were in Grissom's office when Nick knocked on the door. "Hey guys, do you have a minute before assignments?"

"Sure Nicky, come on in," said Grissom.

"Griss, Cath before you make today's assignments you need to know that Sara is pregnant. We are thrilled. We think she is about six weeks. Greg just ran the blood work for us. She claims she is done throwing up for the morning and is on her way in. I'll tell Warrick, but we'd like to wait on anyone else until she is farther along."

"That's great Nicky! I thought that you guys had been told it wasn't going to happen and had given up trying?" ask Catherine.

"Well, we were told it was unlikely without intervention and while we haven't exactly been trying we haven't exactly been not trying either."

"Well then this is an excellent surprise," said Grissom. "Don't worry we will make Sara's assignments with this in mind. Make sure she talks to us after she sees a doctor."

Nick found Warrick in the locker room. He was glad to see he was there alone. "Hey, 'Rick, Sara and I have some new to share. She's pregnant. We're thrilled. Greg just confirmed the blood work. Griss and Cath know, but otherwise we'd like to keep it under wraps for a while long."

"That's great bro!" said Warrick, while give Nick a manly half hug/half back slap.

"Do the kids know?"

"Lacey guessed this morning so she and Mike know. We aren't telling Lisa for awhile. She can barely deal with the concept of next month. I think the idea of a new baby in 8 months of so would blow her mind."

* * *

**Chapter 6: Chapter 6**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 6

Nick and Warrick headed to the break room. Sara was in there pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Uh, Sara," said Nick like a man about to drop a bomb, "I don't think you are supposed to drink coffee. It's not good for the baby."

Sara looks horrified. She drops the cup in the sink and runs out of the break room in tears. Nick turns to follow her, but Catherine stops him saying "Let me go. I think she needs someone who understands what it is like to have you body taken over by someone else for nine months. Just for future reference though moderate caffeine consumption is fine."

Warrick smirks at Nick and says "It's going to be a long pregnancy isn't it?"

Catherine finds Sara crying in the bathroom. She gives Sara a hug and says "It's just hitting you isn't it? Eddie and I were surprised by Lindsey too. We had decided we wanted a baby. I had started to read all the books. I made an appointment at to see the doctor and made a list of everything I was supposed to avoid. Then I went to the doctor and she told me I was already pregnant. I started to cry. All I could think of was the bottle of wine Eddie and I had shared the night before and the cup of coffee I had started the day with. I started telling my OB this and you know what she did? She laughed. She said that she did recommend that I give up alcohol and limit my caffeine, but that nothing that I had done already had hurt the baby. She reminded me that American's obsess about the perfect pregnancy, but people in Europe are more relaxed and in general they have healthier infants."

"Thanks, Catherine. I needed to hear that. I know I can be a good mother, but I'm not sure how good I can be at being pregnant."

"Sure, Sara. Take a couple minutes. Dry your eyes and come join us."

Catherine walked back into the break room and said "Nick. Sara's fine. Remember that this hasn't entirely sunk in yet. Listen to what Sara's doctor says, but do not turn into the food and beverage police. She's going to be under enough pressure from herself and every pregnancy book out there to be perfect. Your job is to keep her happy, relaxed and following the instructions from her doctor."

"Yes, Cath. I didn't mean. I just figured she forgot about the coffee."

"It's ok Nicky."

Sara slipped back into the break room and hugged Nick. Then Grissom came in a with assignments.

"Greg and Catherine you have an arson in Summerlin. I'm going to take a liquor story robbery on the strip. Warrick, Nick and Sara you guys get to go out to Pioche. There is a cabin outside of town that is "a blood bath." The P.D. out there called the sheriff and asked for the same people who handled the McBride case. I don't know what you will find yet, but since we are not that busy the sheriff is demanding I send you all. Greg, before you mention it I know you were in on the McBride case, but since Amy is 8 months along, I thought you would like to stay closer to town."

"Griss do you really need Sara at this? We don't want her to contaminate a crime scene and someone needs to be able to pick up Lisa. Something at Pioche could make us miss day care pick-up."

"Nick, I'm sure there is plenty for Sara to do. Besides you should probably see how she does at a bloody crime scene before saying anything. Unless you happen to like having your wife annoyed at you. If you get stuck in Pioche, then Greg, Catherine or I will get Lisa. Now go."

Sara met Nick and Warrick in the parking lot. Nick won the game of rock, paper, scissors so he was driving. As Sara slid into the passenger side of the Denali, she said "Nick, I was able to get a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 9:00. Can you join me?"

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

:So Sara, I understand from my bro Nick that congrats are in order. I'm very happy for you."

"Thanks Warrick. Nick, I got the feeling there was something you weren't telling me about Lacey guessing that I am pregnant. So spill."

"It's nothing big. I was kind of shocked when Lacey asked me if you were pregnant so I asked her why she thought so to stall for time. She said that you had been real tired, looked green the past couple of mornings and were throwing up, just like one of the girls in her home room last year when she was pregnant. I was kind of freaked out by that. Lacey was 13 last year. She's way too young to have classmates that are pregnant."

"Oh, she was talking about Amanda. Nick you know about that. I testified on that case. I couldn't get her to talk until I mentioned I was Lacey's mom. We put her step-father in jail for rape. Her mom was a fruit cake. She believed Amanda seduced her husband and the pregnancy was her punishment. The OB called the police when she realized what was going on. After the trial, Amanda went to live with an aunt and uncle in California. They are nice people. They were horrified to find out what happened. Maybe you forgot. You were working a triple homicide at the time that involved lots of double shifts."

"O.K. this is coming back to me now. Somehow the way Lacey mentioned it, seemed so matter of fact. I guess I can tell Greg that we can stop looking for convents with pre-schools for Lisa and the two new additions if they are girls."

"Well, I'm going to ignore the double standard in that statement because you are entitled not to be thinking straight since you just got some rather exciting news and without context it is kind of crazy to hear Lacey talking about pregnant middle school classmates so matter of factly. Was there anything else?"

"Well, Lacey is excited and Mike seemed happy, but also kind of weirded out. If it continues, I'll try to figure out what is going on."

"Not being a parent, I could be wrong" said Warrick, "but I bet I know what made Mike seem weirded out. This baby is concrete proof that his parental figures actually have sex."

Nick and Sara smiled thinking that maybe Warrick was on to something.

"Nick you should tell Warrick about Julie, her parents and your time in the hay loft. That should kill enough time for us to get to Pioche."

Nick proceeded to tell Warrick about Julie and his encounter in the hay loft. By the end of the conversation Warrick was laughing very, very hard and talking about the advantages of being an only child.

Sara's cell phone rang. She answered "Sidle-Stokes. Thanks a bunch Greg. We'll call you when we have a better idea of when of when we will be back. Call if you have any questions." She hung up the phone and told Nick and Warrick that due to a water main problem the county day care has closed. Greg had picked up Lisa and people were going to take turns amusing her.

Warrick, Sara, and Nick got to Pioche and discovered that the blood in the cabin was not human. It was animal blood used to set the stage of a movie about the McBride killings that a college student home for the summer was making. The cabin was abandoned so they felt no need to clean up and took off on a rode trip when they were done.

As they were heading back, Sara got a call from Greg's wife Amy, who was a county social worker. Amy was offering to keep Lisa for the night and take her to daycare (assuming the water problem was fixed) the next day. Amy thought she and Greg could use the practice with a little kid and Sara and Nick could use the time to talk with Lacey and Mike about the new baby.

Nick and Sara pulled into the garage. They could hear Mike and Lacey screaming at each other, but couldn't really understand what they were saying. That was highly unusual. Generally, those two got along pretty well. As soon as they entered the house, Nick and Sara heard Lacey yelling "You're not the boss of me," and Mike yelling "I said no and that's final."

Nick was no stranger to this type of sibling argument. He took a page from his parents book and announced "Both of you go to your rooms. We don't resolve things by yelling in this family. We'll discuss this later when you have both calmed down."

Lacey started to say "But Mike started it by.."

Nick cut her off by saying "I don't care right now. I said go to your rooms and we will discuss this when you both calm down."

Mike and Lacey stomped off to their rooms.

Sara flopped down on the couch and said "Well, that's a nice welcome home."

Nick laughed replying "Yeah. I felt like I was channeling my father for a minute. My mouth was moving, but Cisco's words were coming out of it."

Sara laughed and said "Well, they seemed to be the right words. Why don't you use your insights into sibling relationships and tell me what you think we walked into the middle of?'

"Well, Sar', I'm not sure, but I think Mike was trying to pull rank on Lacey. I suspect that he is trying to play the worldly older brother card. I'm not exactly about what though."

"So, while we let them cool down, we should decide about dinner. I'm wiped out after our trip to Pioche. It sound's like we will have fun issues to deal with. How do you feel about ordering pizza and making a salad for dinner Nick?"

"Sounds good to me. Let's give them a few more minutes. I'll take Mike and you can take Lacey. We'll meet back downstairs without them and go from there. Which ever one of us gets done first orders the pizza?"

"Sure."

Fifteen minutes later Nick and Sara were knocking on Mike and Lacey's doors.

"Lacey. It's Sara. Can I come in?"

"Yes."

Lacey is sprawled out across her bed. Sara sits down at in the desk chair and says "So what had you and Mike screaming at each other like that?"

"Well, Mike is being a jerk because Kurt Donaldson asked me to homecoming. Mike and Kevin play basketball together and I thought they got along. After we got home, Mike told me that he heard Kurt had asked to me to homecoming, but that I wasn't allowed to go with him because Kurt is 'too much of a player to go out with his sister.'"

Sara proceeded to ask a few more questions and then decided she had a pretty good idea of what had happened. Before she left she said " You are right, Mike doesn't get to tell you who you can and can't date, however, he is older and sometimes guys know stuff about other guys, so if Mike is concerned that you might not be safe, he is justified in sharing his concerns with Nick and I. Keep in mind he does this because he cares even if he's not going about it in the right way. We're having pizza for dinner. We'll call you downstairs when dinner is here and we are ready for further discussion."

"Mike. It's Nick. Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Mike is sitting on his bed leaning up against the head board. Nick sits down a the foot of the bed and says "So why were you and Lacey screaming at each other like that?"

"Well, Kurt Donaldson asked Lacey to homecoming and I said she couldn't go because . . ."

"Time out, Mike. You are her brother, not her dad. I'm her dad. Unless you are reminding her of family rules, you really don't have the right to tell her she can't do something and she's not going to take it well. However, I'm sure you wouldn't have said that with out a reason so tell me why?"

"Kurt is too much of a player to date Lacey. Nick, I've heard him talk in the locker room about girls he dates. You have to remember what that is like. You played football."

"Yeah, I do. There were some older guys on the team who I would have much rather your Aunt Suzy and Aunt Jen stayed away from. Generally, Aunt Suzy and Aunt Jen weren't interested in those guys either. I thought Kurt was a friend though?"

"Well, he is kind of, but that doesn't mean I want him dating Lacey."

"Mike, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be friendly with him, but if he doesn't treat the girls he dates well enough for your sister to date, then maybe you shouldn't be his friend. Don't all girls deserve the treatment you want Lacey to have?"

"I guess so," answered Mike avoiding Nick's eyes.

"Do you think that Kurt would do anything to really hurt Lacey, not hurt her feelings, but hurt her? Do you think he forces or manipulates girls into doing things they don't want to do? Does he hit them? Would he put something in her drink? Does he have a problem with drugs or drinking? If you know anything like that I hope you would tell Lacey, and Sara and I. If he's just kind of a jerk and you don't even like the thought of him even slow dancing with your sister let alone doing anything else, then Lacey needs to make her own choices. Trust me. I would prefer not to think about any guy getting too close to Lacey, but that's part of being her dad and I have to deal with it. It's not fair or right for me to be ok with you and Katy, but to object the general idea of her doing to a dance with a guy. So is Kurt dangerous or kind of a jerk?"

"I think he's just kind of a jerk, so I guess Lacey has to make her own choices. I'll apologize to her."

"Good man. I'm glad you are looking out for her. If you had credible evidence that she wasn't safe Sara and I probably would have agreed with you. Listen while we are talking, I know you and Katy have been going out a while. I just want to make sure there is nothing you want to talk about or anything. I know there are lots of temp . . ."

"Nick, Katy and I aren't having sex and we aren't planning on it either if that is what you are trying to ask. Plus, I do know how to be safe."

"Well, good. I think that's the right decision. You should finish growing up first. However, Sara and I are always around to talk. I know its hard to believe, but I do remember being your age."

"Mike, Sara and I are going to talk about a few things. Then we are going to order pizza for dinner and we are all going to talk. Be prepared to apologize to Lacey for over stepping. We'll call you when dinner is ready."

Downstairs, Nick found that Sara had ordered the pizza and was putting away the groceries that were just delivered . He started to put together a salad and set the table. Sara finished putting stuff away and began to help him while saying "I think you managed to predict the situation pretty well. Lacey is mad because Mike is trying to tell her who she can or can't date."

"Yeah. I talked to Mike and told him to be prepared to apologize to Lacey. He thinks this Kurt kid is too much of a player and a jerk to date his sister. I did ask if he had any reason to think Lacey wouldn't be safe, other than getting her feelings hurt and he said no. He's ready to apologize to Lacey."

"I guess they really are turning into siblings. It's nice to see. Why don't we do apologies before pizza? Then we can catch-up over dinner and launch into new baby issues after."

"Sure. I'll call Mike and Lacey." Nick then called the kids down to dinner from the bottom of the stairs.

A somewhat subdued Mike and Lacey came to join Nick and Sara for dinner. Mike apologized for overstepping and yelling. Lacey apologized for yelling.

"OK then, now that we have that behind us. Let's have a nice cheerful dinner. Any thing interesting happen at school today?" asked Sara

"I think I did well on the fetal pig test," Lacey answered while smiling. "The flash cards were a big help. Will you return them to Grissom for me and thank him?"

"Sure," said Sara and "Of course," said Nick answering at the same time.

"I think my geometry teacher is trying to quit smoking. Ms. Washington tried to smoke her chalk about four or five times during class and the lost her place for a minute," reported Mike. "Other than that nothing really happened."

"What I want to know," a rather unsure Lacey asked "is if I'm going to be getting a new little brother or sister?'

"Yeah, you are," said Sara smiling. "I understand you figured that out this morning. We actually wanted to talk to you about that after dinner, but I guess we can start now. Anything you want to know?"

Lacey launched into a litany of questions. "So when is the baby due? Are you going to find out if it's a boy or a girl? Can we help pick out a name? Can we tell people?"

"I think I'm about six weeks along, so the baby will probably be due some time in late May/ early June. I'll know more after I talk to the doctor. We haven't even talked about finding out the sex. That's a ways off. You are welcome to suggest names. I'd like to wait until around Thanksgiving to tell people, besides Grandma Jillian and Grandpa Cisco, in case something goes wrong. Nick and I need to think about when it would be best to tell Lisa."

"Y'all know that I grew up in a big family, so I'm real happy to be adding a fourth kid. I'd love to tell you that nothing will change, but that will be a lie. We promise not to stick you with too much babysitting and stuff, but things might end up a little crazy around here. I want to make sure that you both know how important you are to us and if we get a little distracted that you let Sara and I know if you need anything, even if it is just more of our time."

The Stokes family spent the rest of the meal discussing everyday kinds of things. Nick and Sara were really enjoying spending the time with just Lacey and Mike eating dinner without having to remind Lisa about table manners, help her cut things, or answer questions about things she didn't understand. After dinner, Sara and Nick were clearing the table and loading the dishwasher, when Sara said, "It was nice to have dinner with Mike and Lacey without Lisa. I hadn't realized how much time and energy goes into dealing with her. I mean I miss her already, but it was nice to focus on talking to both Mike and Lacey."

"It was nice. We both spend time with Lisa together and we each spend time with Mike and Lacey, but not both of us with both of them very often. Hopefully, we will remember to find more ways to do that."

After they finished cleaning up, Nick decided he'd try to call Julie again. He wanted to know if she had talked to her parents. Sara went to the family room to catch-up on her reading.

Nick got Julie's voicemail again, so he decided to check his email. He was in luck. Julie had sent him more email.

_From: AT .gov_

_To: nstokes AT_

_To: I told them!_

_Dear Uncle Nicky—_

_That's right, Uncle Nicky. I promise not to call you that in public but sometimes I just need my Uncle Nicky. As far as I was concerned, my Uncle Nicky was the third most powerful guy in the world after Grandpa and Daddy. You knew almost everything; you could scare the monsters out from under my bed, could fix almost anything, and make me safe just by being there. Now clearly, I learned somewhere down the road that you three weren't super heroes, but sometimes I need to believe that Uncle Nicky can make it all right._

_I told my parents. Mama started to rant a bit, but Dad shut her down. I didn't have to use anything you told me. They are very happy for us. Mama is already making a list of family names for me to use and planning a nursery. Dad is just plain happy. He's planning trips to baseball games and Disneyland. I convinced Dad to wait another month or so before telling the rest of the family besides Grandma and Grandpa Stokes just in case (God forbid) something goes wrong._

_Ashley and Trey are also happy. Ashley is especially happy, because as she pointed out by being an aunt she can have the fun parts of being around a baby, but not the yucky hard parts. I think Ashley's boyfriend is happy too because she can channel her nesting instincts into my baby. Plus, I think I have convinced her that being pregnant is not as much fun as some people make it seem. I mean I'm happy to be pregnant, but I'm tired all the time and I keep throwing up. I'd be happier if I could have the baby and not throw-up so much._

_I'm sorry I haven't called back, but I never seem to have any time, since we are trying to wrap up the appropriations bills by the end of the fiscal year for once. Wish me luck!_

_I also told Congressman Lampson. I was trying to avoid it until, I was farther along, but I had to stop the car to throw-up on the way to an event. He guessed. I think he is only a little less excited than Dad is. His daughter's haven't had any children yet and he wants to be a grandfather. In fact he said since this baby's grandparents will be in Texas, he'll have to be the baby's DC grandpa._

_I really appreciate the advice and support!_

_Love,_

_Julie_

_P.S. Robert says hello!_

Julie's email made Nick very happy. He was glad things went well. He decided that he was going to talk with Will over Thanksgiving and let him know how Christine was making Julie feel. Nick knew that Will would want to know. He would just dash off a quick note to Julie and then see what Sara was up to.

_From: AT .gov_

_To: nstokes AT_

_To: re: I told them!_

_Dear Julie –_

_I'm flattered that I was one of the three most important guys in your life. You are more than welcome to call me Uncle Nicky in private. I wish that I could still fix everything for you. Lisa still thinks I can fix everything, but that probably won't last too much longer._

_I'm glad you parents are happy. I knew they would be. Your dad is going to love being a grandfather._

_Your email actually came at a very good time. When you described what made your chief of staff ask if you were pregnant, you described Sara the last couple of days perfectly. Your email made me think that maybe a pregnancy test was in order. She is indeed pregnant. We got to the doctor tomorrow, but we think she is about six weeks along. Our lab confirmed it with a blood test._

_You should call Sara if you want to commiserate about the throwing-up part of being pregnant. She's also not happy about the limited caffeine part._

_I'm going to tell my parents, but we are going to wait on the rest of the family for a while. Mike and Lacey know and seem excited. Lacey actually guessed too. Lisa doesn't know because she can barely stand waiting another six weeks for Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's._

_Good luck on getting appropriations bills passed. Don't work too hard._

_Say hi to Robert._

_Love,_

_Nick_

Nick went on to check the rest of his email. He had email from several of his sisters and one of his fraternity brothers. As he was getting ready to log off, he noticed that he had a brand new message from Julie.

_AT .gov_

_To: nstokes AT_

_To: Wonderful!_

_Dear Nick—_

_I'm so excited for you and Sara. I'm also excited that my baby is going to have another kid in the family close in age. After all, none of my siblings or cousins should be having babies for a few more years._

_I take it you are going to announce at Thanksgiving too. The family will be thrilled._

_I need to get back to work or I will never be able to go home. Give my love to Sara and the kids!_

_Love,_

_Julie_

* * *

**Chapter 7: Chapter 7**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 7

Sara was in the family room trying to get into her reading, but having a hard time. Something was bothering her. After thinking about it she realized that it was Mike. She decided that she would go talk to him.

Sara knocked on Mike's door and was told to come in. Mike was sitting at his desk working geometry problems. Sara sat down on his bed and Mike turned sideways in the chair to look at her.

"Mike, I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate the concern you showed for Lacey. Even though she won't admit it, and even though she has to learn some things for herself, she is lucky to have you looking after her."

"Thanks, Sara. I know I got carried away. I just didn't like to think of him treating Lacey that way."

"It's ok. We all make mistakes. Listen, I hope you don't need to hear this because I hope we've made sure you know it, but there is something I need to say, probably because of my own history in foster care. I need to make sure that you know that Nick and I consider you our son and that having a baby doesn't change that. I know that you didn't want to be adopted, and that is fine with Nick and I, because as far as we are concerned you are our son. However, if you change your mind, we would be happy to make it legal. No matter what though we want this to be your home forever. I want you to bring your dirty laundry home from college over Thanksgiving and that kind of thing. Someday, I want you and your sisters and the new baby to bring your families here for a big gathering like Grandma Jillian has."

Mike looked a little uncomfortable with the amount of emotion in Sara's speech. She had even gotten a bit teary eyed. "I know Sara."

"Thanks. Now come give a slightly irrational pregnant woman a hug."

Mike did as Sara asked.

Sara found Nick downstairs flipping through channels. When she sat down next to him on the couch, he saw her teary eyes and said, "What's wrong?"

Sara smiled and said "I think I'm behaving like a slightly overly emotional pregnant woman. I just came from torturing Mike by telling him that I was glad he was looking out for Lacey. While I was up there, I felt like I needed to tell him flat out that even though he didn't want to be adopted, we think of him as our son and that the new baby won't change that. I told him that I wanted him to bring his dirty laundry home from college for Thanksgiving break, and that I wanted him, his sisters, and the new baby to bring their families back here for the kind of big gathering Grandma Jillian has. I also told him that he could change his mind about being adopted."

"Wow. It sounds like you needed to say it and I think it did Mike good to hear it, even if he looked like he wanted to flee. He's a fifteen year old boy, so mushy stuff is hard for him, but everyone likes to be reminded how much they are loved."

"Thanks, Nick. I needed to hear that."

"No problem. I still haven't been able to reach Julie, but I got an email from her. She told her parents. They are thrilled, although Christine made a little noise, but not much. The Congressman guessed when she threw up in front of him on the street. He's declared himself the baby's DC grandpa. I told her about our baby and said she could call and commiserate with you about the throwing up. Before I got off Julie replied with her congrats. She seemed very excited."

Nick and Sara sat and talked. Lacey and Mike came down at nine to watch a favorite teen drama, then went back upstairs to finish up homework before bed. Nick suggested Sara take a bath and relax before bed.

While Sara was in the tub, Nick doubled checked all the locks on the doors. Then he went upstairs to say goodnight to Lacey. He liked the fact that Lacey was still young enough that she liked a good night hug and kiss from her dad.

Then Nick went to say good night to Mike. While standing in the doorway, Nick said, "Mike, I know Sara seems a little emotional right now. Part of it is her hormones going a little bit nuts because of the baby. We just need to be supportive. Thanks for being a good sport."

"It's cool Nick. Maybe, I'll give some more thought to being adopted. Would I have to call you and Sara "mom" and "dad"? I mean I tell other people you are my parents, but would I have to call you that? I still remember my mom some and even though she disappeared she'll always be Mom you know?"

Nick went and put his arm around Mike and said, "You don't have to call us mom and dad. Lacey doesn't for the same reason, but we will adopt her when her great-aunts get used to the idea. My sister-in-law calls my parents mom and dad, but Sara doesn't for the same reason you mentioned. You know I looked up your mom's case. I don't think she left you on purpose. I think something happened to her and a connection was never made to her case or to you. I can't prove it, but it's just a feeling I have based on the way people said she talked about you. Even if she did, she's still your mom and you are allowed to love her."

"Thanks, Nick. Good night."

"Good night Mike."

Nick went into the master bedroom, stripped down to his boxers and t-shirt and climbed into bed to read. He'd let Sara have her time in the bath and brush his teeth after she was done. He hoped if he went to bed early Sara would too. Besides he liked reading in bed beside his wife.

Sara came out of the bathroom and Nick went in to get ready for bed. When he came out Sara was reading in bed. He climbed in next to her and said, "I talked to Mike when I went to say goodnight. You did good. I think he might let us adopt him. It seems that he might have been afraid he would have to call us mom and dad, which since he still loves and remembers his mom bothers him. I told him, I personally think something happened to his mom, but that even if nothing happened to her and she left, he's allowed to love her because she was his mom."

"Sounds like you did good too. I love you." With that statement Sara put her book down, draped herself across her husband and began to kiss him. As things became more intense, Nick felt like he had to speak up, "Sar' I'd love to keep going, but don't you have to have an exam at the doctor's tomorrow. I thought we weren't supposed to have sex before that because it messes with the test."

"Well Nick, I think that is just for a pap smear, but just in case we could do other things. Things we haven't done in awhile. Things that got a president impeached. Or we could fool around like teenagers who do everything but go all the way."

"God, Sar'. You are incredible. Let me go lock that door. If we plan to do things that got a president impeached, I'd like to return the favor, which I believe he never technically actually did."

Tuesday morning, Nick and Sara sat in the waiting room of her doctor's office waiting for her appointment. Sara filled out paperwork. Nick just sat and thought. As he sat there, he realized he wasn't sure he wanted to be there. He wanted to talk to the doctor and all, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to be there while the doctor did an internal exam on Sara. He knew that it shouldn't hurt. He even knew the basics of performing one for an SAE. He had never actually done one because every hospital had nurses trained for that and a male CSI was everyone's last choice, but he had had to learn. He just wasn't sure he could watch someone touch his wife clinically, where he touched her intimately.

As he was thinking, Nick's cell phone chirped indicating he has a text message. It said "911. Call in ASAP." "Sara, check your phone. I just got a 911 page."

He called in. Grissom picked up on the second ring. "Nick, I need you here now. We've got two missing boys and lots of ground to cover."

"Grissom, I'm at the doctor's with Sara. Can it wait until I'm done?"

"Nick, I have it on the authority of both Greg and Catherine that you won't miss anything quote 'good' unquote at this appointment."

"Sara and I only have one car. Can you have Warrick pick me up?"

"Sure, I'll have him call you for directions. I'm really sorry."

"Sara, Grissom needs me to come in now. We have two missing children. He says that Greg and Catherine say I won't miss anything good at this appointment. Warrick is going to come pick me up. I'm so sorry."

"Nick, it's ok. I promise I'll tell you everything."

With that Nick went outside to wait for Warrick.

The great big call turned out to be nothing, but a huge misunderstanding. The forced entry was actually where the older son hit a baseball through the front door window. The blood in the kitchen was from where the younger brother fell and hit his temple on the counter. There was lots of blood because head wounds bleed heavily. The mother took the boys off to the emergency room without bothering to lock the door. She had been in the process of moving stuff into a new purse when it happened so her wallet was gone, but older purse, its contents and her cell phone were on the table. She thought the husband would be out of town for several more days and figured she would call him after they were done at the emergency room. The husband came home early to what looked like a crime scene.

While he was glad that the only real damage was a fairly typical childhood injury, Nick was annoyed this false alarm caused him to miss Sara's appointment. He thought Grissom over reacted. They could have waited another hour for him. Nick decided to see if he could catch a ride back to the lab with Greg. Maybe Greg would have some words of advice on how to handle watching Sara's exam.

Sitting in the Denali, Nick and Greg talked about Lisa's night with the Sanders. Apparently, everyone involved had lots of fun. Lisa told one of her long rambling nonsensical stories to Greg and Amy, who loved it. Greg and Amy took her to McDonald's for dinner and let her run herself tired in the playground.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Nick took a deep breath and said "Greg, man, I need some advice about being the husband of a pregnant woman."

"Well Nick, the tables have finally turned. You are coming to me for advice. Seriously, I'm happy to help if I can."

"You've been to Amy's appointments or some of them right?"

Greg nodded his head.

"Well, how do you handle watching her get an internal exam? I know it's not sexual and hell, Sara's doctor is a woman. I just don't know how to handle someone examining Sara's body, which I worship every inch of, clinically."

"Honestly, Nick, I stay up by Amy's head and hold her hand. Then I either look at Amy's face or at one of the posters or models in the room. You know it's saying something when the model of the female reproductive system or a poster with a cross section of a breast is the least embarrassing spot in the room to be looking. Except for the ultrasounds, I try not to pay much attention to what the doctor is doing. I don't want to have to look at Amy's body with a clinical eye either."

"Thanks man. That's good advice. I'm glad I'm not alone."

"Nick, I'm afraid that I'll find the sight of Amy breastfeeding weird. I'm mean I've seen other women do it and it doesn't bother me. I know it's supposed to be a special moment to watch your child nurse at your wife's breast, I'm afraid it will be weird. Not in some kind of Neanderthal the-kid-is-taking-my-toys way, but it just seems weird to me that one thing my child and I will share is that we both enjoy nuzzling Amy's breasts. I know that the primary purpose of breasts is to feed children and it's natural. I'm just afraid it will be weird or that I will be weird and upset Amy somehow."

"Thanks Greg, now I have something else to worry about. I know what you mean though. I think we just have to trust that it is not weird."

Nick was in the break room doing paperwork, when the new under-sheriff came in. The under-sheriff, Anne Barnes, was a slightly grandmotherly looking woman in her sixties. Sometimes she used that to lull political opponents in to complacency, at which point she pounced ferociously. She had few political ambitions beyond keeping Las Vegas safe and supporting law enforcement. He looked up in surprise when she came in and sat down next to him.

"Mr. Stokes, I had hoped to speak to you and your wife, but I understand she is out in the field. I hope you will pass along my apologies to her for pulling you out of what I understand was her first pre-natal visit. I believe that we could have either waited for you to finish and better assessed the situation or called in someone from the night shift. Dr. Grissom means well, but he lacks a certain balance in his life. Law enforcement is not always a family friendly career. Or even friendly to having friends and houseplants. I think we can reduce burnout if we strive to be more respectful of everyone's personal lives."

"Thank you ma'am. Please call me Nick. I appreciate that. I'll let Sara know. However it really wasn't a huge inconvenience. It wasn't one of the ultrasound visits. Everyone has been really supportive of Sara and I. I did want to let you know that while the team knows Sara is pregnant we are trying not to tell anyone else for a little while."

"Don't worry, I won't say anything. You make sure that she takes time off if she needs and moves in out of the field to the lab if she needs it too. If anyone makes waves, have her come see me. By the way, I think I hear Texas in your voice. Are you related to the retired Texas public defender Jillian Stokes?"

"Jillian Stokes is my mother. I'll make sure Sara takes care of herself. We appreciate the support."

"Nick, I saw your mother speak at a gathering of women in law and law enforcement in 1971 or thereabouts when I was just starting out. She was a real inspiration to lots of us, especially when we saw she was pregnant at the time and heard had other kids at home. She brought her little boy with her. She made us feel like we could maybe just have it all. Were you that little boy?"

"I'll tell her. I always knew she was great, but it was not until Sara and I started being parents that I figured out how amazing she really was. The little boy would have been my brother. If it was 1971, I would have been the one she was pregnant with."

"So you and Sara have a family? I had understood this was your first."

"Well, we have three other kids through foster care that we are in the process of adopting. Lacey is 14, Mike is 15, and, Lisa is two. We've had Lacey for three years, Mike for about a year and a half, and Lisa since she was three days old. We were in the process of waiting to be assigned a foster child about a year after we had gotten married, when Sara brought Lacey home from a crime scene after getting the run around from children's services."

"Well, that's just wonderful. Please tell your mother she inspired me. I need to get back to work."

'Thank you ma'am."

* * *

**Chapter 8: Chapter 8**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! It's so nice to know someone is reading and enjoying!

Chapter 8

Later that evening, while Mike and Lacey were off in their rooms probably working on homework and Lisa was watching a video, Nick and Sara were making dinner together in the kitchen. Nick told Sara about his visit from the under-sheriff.

"Well, I appreciate that. We'll have to tell your mother about that when we call her tonight. You really didn't miss much at the doctors. She did a pelvic exam, gave me prenatal vitamins, and we talked a little about what I have read in many pamphlets. I have a whole bunch of pamphlets on diet, but really I just need to add more milk, cut way back on caffeine and stay away from alcohol (although she said not to worry about things like brandy in fruitcake or a glass of champagne at a wedding). She said I would probably enjoy my caffeine more in the form of chocolate. I am also supposed to stay away from cheeses like bleu cheese with active bacteria because they are more likely to give me mild food poisoning. You can read all of this and I don't think you would have enjoyed the pelvic exam."

Nick smiled and said, "It's funny you should say that because I had a whole conversation with Greg about where he looks during that part of the exam. Neither one of us wants to watch someone examine our wives with a clinical eye, because it's not a way we want to view you. It's not because, I'm jealous or afraid, but because your body is almost sacred to me, something to be worshipped and not examined."

"Nicky, you say the sweetest things. You can just hold my hand and keep your eyes on my face or wait outside." Sara pulled Nick to her and kissed him deeply. They were interrupted by the sound of Mike clearing his throat and saying "Sorry, to interrupt. I just wanted to get some water."

"No worries. Dinner is almost ready. Why don't you put drinks on the table? I'll have milk, please," said Sara. "Then can you call Lacey and help Lisa wash up."

Just then the phone rang. Sara answered, "Hello, Stokes residence."

"Hi, Sara it's Miriam. Lacey and Shanna and some of the other girls were talking about going out to eat and seeing a movie on Friday night. Something PG or PG-13. I wanted to let you and Nick know that we'd be happy to both take the girls and pick them up. It was such a help to have Shanna be able to study for the pig test at your house. My mother-in-law would have gone crazy over the idea of a pig in a kosher house. Never mind that she eats shrimp and lobster when we go out."

"Thanks, Miriam. We'd appreciate that. However, we were happy to have the girls study here. Nick said it reminded him of growing up since he had five sisters. They are all such nice girls."

After exchanging a few more words about the girls and school, Sara hung up with Miriam.

"Hey, Nick. Let's invite Greg and Amy over for dinner on Friday. Miriam just called to thank us for letting Shanna study for her pig test here and offer to drive the girls both ways to dinner and movie Friday night. So that's one kid that won't need a ride anywhere."

"Sounds good. We'll ask him tomorrow."

Lisa entertained the family at dinner with her story of her time with Greg and Amy. Greg and Amy were two of her favorite people outside her immediate family. Mike and Lacey filled everyone in on school and their friends. Nick told everyone about his big case that wasn't a case.

That evening, Nick and Sara both got on the phone to call Nick's parents. When Jillian answered, Nick asked her to put Cisco on, since they had good news to share. Once everyone was on the phone Nick announced "Sara's pregnant. You should be getting grandchild number seventeen in mid-May."

"Nick, Sara that's wonderful! I didn't know you were still trying. It will be so nice to have a baby in the family again," said Jillian.

"That's wonderful you two," said Cisco.

"Thanks, Mom and Cisco," said Nick.

"Thanks, Jillian and Bill. I guess you could say that we weren't not trying, but after all these years it's a wonderful surprise," answered Sara.

"Listen, Sara when you have the baby, I want to come out and spend a couple of weeks helping out if you will have me. I'm sure my son will treat you like a queen, but a new baby is a handful. A new baby and three other children is two handsful," said Jillian.

"I'll try to get out there as much as I can depending on the court," said Cisco.

"I'm sure Nick and I will be able to use as much help as you can give. We'd love to have you," said Sara.

"Listen Nick, why don't you and I let Sara and your mother talk girl talk. I'll call you back on your cell phone ok?"

"Sure Cisco," said Nick as he got up to go find his cell phone.

"Well, Sara now that we have the phone to ourselves. How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing o.k. Jillian. I'm a bit nauseous in the mornings and I've thrown up a couple of times. I'm getting more sleep than ever, but since I've always been kind of an insomniac it's good. The baby is about the size of a peanut so I don't understand how it can be making me have to pee all the time."

"That sounds about normal. Hopefully, you only have a few more weeks of the morning sickness. I think that having to pee all the time is hormonal. Later, the baby will be tap dancing on your bladder and that will make it worse. I think Nicky was going to be a place kicker. I know each time I was pregnant, I felt like there were times I needed my mother, so I hope that you call me if you feel that way. Even if it is because your husband is making you nuts. You are the pregnant one and he's a man so I will be on your side. Also any of my daughters would be happy to talk to you. They would probably be more useful for practical advice. Things have changed a bit. When I had Will, Bill didn't go to any doctor's appointments and wasn't allowed anywhere near the delivery room. They knocked me out completely. Now with Nicky, we went to classes and Bill was in the delivery room with me, but the nurses thought of us as an annoying hippie couple. Even with Nicky, my OB was telling me that if I couldn't sleep, I should put my feet up and have a beer."

"Thanks, Jillian. I'll take you up on that sometime. Nick forgot to tell you, but the Under Sheriff Anne Barnes asked him if he was related to you. Apparently, you were an inspiration to her. She saw you speak at a conference for women in law and law enforcement many years ago. She said you had Will with you and were pregnant with Nick, since it was baby number seven."

"Well, that's very nice to hear. If y'all see her again thank her. By the way Sara, I just thought of something you are very lucky to have. Most women who are pregnant for the first time have no idea how they will do as mothers. We know you are a great mom. Now. I'm sure you will find plenty of other things to worry about, but that's one less."

"Thanks Jillian. I appreciate it. We would appreciate it if you and Cisco could keep this news to yourself until Thanksgiving. Nick and I will announce then. Mike, Lacey, and a few people at work know, but that's it. I'll be about thirteen weeks by Thanksgiving and I'll feel better telling people."

"Of course, I will dear."

"Thanks, Jillian. I need to get going. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Sara"

"Bye Jillian."

Meanwhile, Nick and Cisco were talking in the other room. Cisco was explaining to Nick, that he and Jillian had already helped each of his siblings buy a house and had thrown a big wedding for all the girls. Cisco went on to say, "You and Sara went ahead and bought your house before we could even offer to help and you threw your own wedding. We understood that you are Sara were older and used to being independent. I know Sara wasn't used to having family help her out. I suspect that parenthood and the cost of college has mellowed you a bit. It seems like you might want to at least investigate a bigger house so the kids could all have their own rooms and you could still have a guest room. Will you and Sara consider it?"

"Thank you, Cisco. You are right Sara and I would have refused outright a few years ago, but I promise we will at least think about it. We might need to think about a bigger place. Sara was just talking to Mike about wanting to host the kind of big holiday celebrations that Mom does with him, his sisters, the new baby and their families in the future. She was a little afraid that he might feel like the new baby would replace him since he had said he didn't want to be adopted. I think she was also just being a little pregnant and emotional. However, it did seem like he might want us to adopt him. We'll see, but as far as I am concerned he is my son."

"That's just great Pancho. You know I think that you and Sara have had less stress in your relationship, than your mother and I did when we first married. I think that being older and more focused helped that."

"Cisco, I'm not sure that is true, but it is nice to hear. We have our moments, but I guess maturity helps. We also spent a long time just being good friends. By the way, I wanted to let you know that we plan to make a general announcement about the baby at Thanksgiving when Sara passes 13 weeks. A few people at work, Mike and Lacey know right now. We are waiting on Lisa for awhile, she has no patience. I also admit that I'd rather not have to answer questions about where babies come from. She's my baby girl, you know?"

"Believe me I know. Wait until Lacey starts dating seriously. Maybe this one will be a boy and you'll have two boys and two girls. Not that another little girl wouldn't be special also."

"Lacey has a date to homecoming. Mike tried to forbid her from going with the guy because Mike knows him from basketball and thinks he is too much of a player to date his sister. I wanted to agree with Mike so badly. Unfortunately, the only things that Mike could say about him indicated that he might hurt Lacey's feelings. Nothing that wouldn't be a horrible double standard to act on since I'm ok with Mike and Katy. Sara would tar and feather me if she knew, but I do worry more about Lacey than Mike. I've seen far too many teenage girls end up in trouble after getting involved with the wrong guy. The boys find their own share of trouble, but it's different. It's usually cars, guns, drugs or alcohol with the boys."

"Pancho, I would never tell Sara. I understand how you feel. I doubt that you will ever stop worrying like that. Your sisters all married great guys. I love my sons-in-law, but I worry about my girls still in a way that I don't worry about you and Will. I just don't advertise it. I'm sure you need to be going, but remember that I'm always here, especially if you want advice on being married to a pregnant woman. I got fairly good at it over the years, although I'm rusty now. Good night, Pancho."

"Good night, Cisco."

That night as they got ready for bed Nick and Sara talked about their conversation with Nick's parents. Nick raised the idea of a bigger house. Sara was hesitant, but agreed that it was worth considering. As she was brushing her teeth, Sara remembered that she had seen a for sale sign in the yard of her favorite big old house. It was a big brick farmhouse. Actually kind of rare for Las Vegas, since most houses for ranches were well ranch style. It sat in the middle of their subdivision. It had been the house for the ranch land that the subdivision had been built on. It was only a few blocks away.

"Hey. Nick. You know the old farmhouse a couple blocks away? That's for sale. I know they redid it a few years ago. Do you think we could afford that? I love the outside so much.'

"I don't know Sar', but we could check it out. A farmhouse should be nice for our growing family. Let's go by on Saturday."

That Saturday morning, Sara and Lacey were out on the search for the perfect homecoming dress. It was early October and the dance was in early November, but Lacey was excited and wanted to get an early start.

Sara was rapidly remembering why she hated shopping as she and Lacey entered the fifth store of the morning. They hadn't found the dress yet. There were several dresses that Sara was very relieved to find out did not fit right in any size. They were very fitted and show a little more cleavage than she would have liked and way more cleavage than Nick would be comfortable with. Nick has not handled a very modest sporty two piece swimsuit well. Luckily, Sara got to him before he said anything to Lacey. Nick's real problem was no longer being able to ignore that his little girl, who was not fully grown yet, had developed a woman's curves.

"Sara! Look at this! It's perfect! I'm going to go try it on."

Lacey stepped out of the dressing room in a dress that was perfect. It was blue velvet, off the shoulders with a scalloped neckline that came straight across from the shoulders and showed no cleveage, it had an empire waist and swirlly skirt. Lacey looked lovely. A little more grown-up than she usually did, but in an appropriate way. The dress was a classic and Sara could see her wearing it again if it still fit, although perhaps not to another school dance. Sara knew that was unlikely.

"Lacey, it's perfect. How much is it?"

They were in luck. The dress was on sale and it was well under the price Sara had set as the maximum. They hit the shoe department for dressy black pumps and lingerie for a strapless bra (Sara caved on matching panties too) and some stockings. The dance shopping was done.

Sara was hungry and suggested lunch at the Applebee's in the Mall. Sara got the salad bar and soup, while Lacey got a burger. As they were sitting waiting for their food, Lacey looked up and asked "Sara, how old were you when you first kissed a boy?"

"Lacey, I was lots older than you are. High school was not a real good time for me. I kept to myself and boys didn't notice me. Are you asking me if you are old enough to kiss a boy?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean is it o.k. to give Kurt a kiss at the end of the night. Is it expected?"

"Lacey, if you want to give Kurt a goodnight kiss that is just fine. If you don't want to, that is also fine. He shouldn't expect anything from you other than saying thank you for the nice night. Showing physical affection is a wonderful thing. However, be careful about how much of yourself you are willing to give away. There are some things that I really hope you wait until you are older and in a committed relationship with a special guy to experience. It really is better both for your emotional and physical well being. Plus, it is more enjoyable. Does that help?"

"Yeah, I think so. It's just all so weird."

"Lacey, it is a challenge. Finding your boundaries is hard. You know that you can always talk to me or Nick right? If for some reason you don't feel like talking to us, there is Catherine, Amy or even Greg. Make sure that you take care of yourself and are safe. Do you have any questions about birth control or safe sex?"

"No. I'm good. Can we talk about something else," asked Lacey fidgeting uncomfortably.

That afternoon Nick and Sara, put Lisa on Nick's back in the backpack and went over to check out the old ranch house. They got there and found a real estate agent taking down the For Sale sign. It turned out that the older couple who lived in the house changed their minds about moving into a retirement community. The agent did not think that the couple had a made a realistic decision. He suspected that the house would go back on the market in another few months. He took one of Nick's cards and said he would call them if the couple changed their minds.

That put a damper on Nick and Sara's enthusiasm for house hunting, but they did decide they would think about it. They would keep theirs eyes open and maybe start reading some real estate ads. They had already decided that they did not want to move outside the school district they were in. Mike and Lacey were in a good school and doing well. They didn't want to move them.

The Homecoming Dance approached quickly. Mike and Katy, Kevin and Shanna, and Lacey and Kurt were all going to dinner and then the dance together. The Anderson's were going to drive all the kids in their van. Mike and Kevin were kind of embarrassed by this and looking forward to having their driver's licenses next year.

Both Nick and Sara were glad that the three couples were going together. The thought it would be a good way to ease Lacey into dating. Sara figured a group would help Lacey not feel pressured to do anything. Nick figured that Mike would get very protective of his sister if anything happened.

Sara, Nick and Lisa went to drop Mike and Lacey off at the Anderson's and get pictures of everyone. Lacey looked lovely and Mike looked handsome. It was fun seeing all those kids dressed up.

Karen Anderson tried to convince all the parents to stay for an impromptu Chinese take out dinner. The Donaldson's had a previous engagement so they declined. Miriam and Sam Adler were interested, as well as Nick and Sara. John Anderson arrived from dropping the kids at the restaurant just as the Chinese food arrived. Lisa was entertaining Karen and Miriam. Both missed having little ones at home and enjoyed the chance to play with a toddler.

The group had just finished eating when John Anderson had to go pick the kids up at the restaurant and take them to the dance. That prompted everyone else to go home. Lisa was clearly about to crash and the Stokes wanted to get her home before she became over tired and cranky.

After putting Lisa to bed, Nick and Sara decided to watch a movie while waiting up for Mike and Lacey. As they lay spooned together on the couch watching the movie, Nick splayed his fingers over the small swelling in Sara's abdomen. She wasn't showing, but Nick could feel a lump. Sara said, "I like how you instinctively move to put your hand over our baby. It's cute."

"Well, I love you both," answered Nick. "It still amazes me that we made a baby."

"Well, I love you too and I'm very amazed by our baby," replied Sara.

After the movie ended, Nick and Sara were watching Forensic Files on Court TV because there was little else on at 12:00 on Saturday night either one of them could stand. Mike and Lacey came through the door chattering and laughing. Sara said, "Sounds like you guys had fun. Did you?"

"Yeah, it was good," answered Mike.

"It was wonderful," said Lacey. "They made the gym look so pretty and everyone looked so nice all dressed up. It was great to hang out with everyone."

"Well good, I think Sara and I are going to turn in," said Nick. "You can tell us more tomorrow."

Good nights were exchanged and everyone headed to bed.

In the car on the way to work, one day about a week after the Homecoming Dance, Nick asked Sara "Have you heard anything about this Kurt kid that took Lacey to the dance. She seemed have a great time, but I didn't hear much about him."

"Well," answered Sara, "from what I understand, while Lacey had fun, it was mostly with her friends. Kurt was a nice date, but Lacey thought he was kind of on the dumb side and that they didn't really have much in common. She's o.k. that he hasn't called."

"Well, I guess that's good," said Nick. "I'm not ready for her to have a steady boyfriend. Before you start Sara, I know it would be a double standard since I didn't have a problem with Mike and Katy last year. I won't say anything, it's just how I feel. Mike was already in high school when he came to live with us. He already had a girlfriend. Lacey was still a girl and not a teenager when we got her."

"Nicky, that's kind of sweet in a slightly chauvinistic kind of way. You are allowed to feel as irrational and protective of Lacey as you want. You just have to act reasonably."

* * *

**Chapter 9: Chapter 9**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! It's so nice to know someone is reading and enjoying! Thanks for Audra for betaing!

Chapter 9

In early November, Amy had a healthy baby boy. Greg and Amy named their son Lars Olaf Sanders. The middle name was in honor of Greg's grandfather Papa Olaf. So far, Lars appeared to be blonde with blue eyes. His hair often ended up looking like Greg's did when he was in the lab and enjoyed crazy spiky styles.

The Stokes family had several fun visits with Lars and his parents. For Mike it was his first chance to hold a baby, it was clear that little Lars fascinated him somewhat although he tried to play it off because after all 15 year old boys are not supposed to be into babies. Lisa thought Lars was kind of like a doll and needed to be reminded to be gentle with the baby. Lacey just adored Lars. Lars also seemed to really adore Lacey. Lars also became very attached to the yellow blanket that Lacey had made for him.

Amy's mother came and spent a couple days with the family, helping Greg and Amy get adjusted to parenthood. After Amy's mother went home Greg took the bulk of his paternity leave. Lars was a fussy baby and Amy was developing a touch of "baby blues."

One afternoon, Sara had taken off work to take Lacey to the dentist, so after the dentist they stopped in to visit so Amy could have some adult company before Greg came home. Lacey took Lars out on the back deck and pushed his stroller back and forth and made funny faces at him. He was very happy and so was Lacey. Sara and Amy got a chance to catch-up. Amy seemed to perk up too.

By the time they were ready to leave, Sara had hatched a plan. It seemed like Amy needed a little break, but of course Lars was too little to be left. Lacey settled Lars down almost like magic. Sara thought that maybe once or twice a week until Amy went back to work or was feeling better Lacey could take the school bus to Greg and Amy's. She could play with Lars for awhile so that Amy could have a break without leaving the baby. While Lacey wasn't old enough to be left alone with an infant she could watch one while another adult was in the house. If Lars went to sleep, Lacey could work on her homework until either Nick or Sara came to pick her up after work or Greg came to take her home.

Sara didn't say anything to Lacey about the idea because she wanted to check with Greg first. Sara dropped Lacey off at home and made an excuse to go back to the lab. She found both Greg and Nick in the garage taking a car apart in the search for evidence. She laid out her plan to them and they both thought it was a good idea. Greg was very excited. He wanted to pay Lacey like a babysitter. Nick and Sara objected saying that it wasn't needed. In the end they decided that Greg and Amy could pay Lacey a little bit which would go in her college fund and they would save real pay until she was old enough to be a formal babysitter.

Lacey jumped at the chance to spend time with Lars and Amy. Having Lacey around helped Amy shake the blues, and allowed Amy and Lacey to be even closer. Amy served as kind of an older sister/cool aunt to Lacey. Sara and Nick were happy about that and thought it might be useful as Lacey became more and more of a teenager. While Nick and Sara wanted their kids to come to them with everything, they knew that would not always be the case and wanted there to be other adults that they would reach out to.

Thanksgiving began to get closer. Sara began to do a little research in parenting books and online to help figure out how to tell Lisa about the new baby. Lisa already knew that some babies grew in their mommy's tummy like Lars and that other babies and kids, like Lisa, Lacey, and Mike, were picked out by special people when the mommies and daddies that gave birth to them couldn't take care of them. They had plenty of adoption books.

Most of the advice that Sara was able to find suggested a straightforward conversation about the baby's arrival and the use of the book "How Babies are Made" to explain the details. According to experts and other parents, a child Lisa's age probably would not have many questions, but if the book made it into the library of story books it would get read again and give Lisa a chance to ask questions as she had them. Of course everyone stressed that simple answers without too much detail were best at this stage. Sara ordered a copy of "How Babies are Made" from She also added "Where Did I Come From?", "How Babies are Born" and "Tell Me Again: About the Night I was Born," which is an adoption story.

Later, that evening, after Lisa had been put to bed, Sara found Nick in the family room and said, "We need to talk about Thanksgiving. The kids are going to need clothes. We also need to talk about telling Lisa about the new baby before we leave since everyone else will learn while we are there. Also can you remind me about the details of the flights and stuff?"

"OK," said Nick. "We are flying Southwest Airlines into Love Field in Dallas. We leave at 6:05pm on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We leave Dallas at 11:00 am the Monday after Thanksgiving. We are going to rent a mini-van. We'll stay out at the ranch. Thursday is Thanksgiving. Friday is the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Saturday is of course the wedding and Sunday is a reception at the ranch for family and friends."

"Great! Well that's one thing out of the way. Will you send Mike's and Lacey's teachers emails to find out what they will miss on Wednesday and Monday? Also, I think Mike needs some new clothes. His pants were almost too short at Homecoming, I think his dress shoes were too small and he needs a suit to wear to the wedding. Can you make sure he has all the clothes he needs?"

"Sure Sara. You'll make sure the girls have the clothes they need?"

"Of course. They should actually be in pretty good shape, but I will double check everything. Now about Lisa. Everything I read suggested that we just simply tell Lisa that we are going to have a new baby and use several books to begin the discussion. They also suggested that the books just go in with the regular picture books so she can bring them out any time she wants to ask more questions or review or just because she likes them. I also got another adoption book we can read too. How does that sound to you?"

Nick shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat, "sure that sounds good. I know we talk about more graphic stuff everyday."

"That's right cowboy. Telling Lisa where babies come from won't kill us. Besides the books won't be here for a couple of days."

For the first time ever, Nick was thinking that Sara was getting off easy dealing with the girls and their clothes. It turned out that Mike only had one dress shirt that really still fit and one rather ugly tie without a stain. So Nick and Mike were shopping for a new suit, new sport coat, two new pairs of dress slacks, (Nick wasn't about to assume that clothes that made it through Thanksgiving dinner would be still be clean at the rehearsal dinner) new dress shirts, dress socks, new dress shoes, and a couple of ties.

Mike was trying to be cooperative, but was overwhelmed. Nick wasn't used to picking out another guy's clothes for him. Usually, Mike bought clothes with limited adult supervision, but that was jeans, sweats and stuff. Apparently, they looked sufficiently lost because a sales woman was with them in minutes. Before either Mike or Nick knew what happened, Nick was sitting outside a stall in the dressing room while the sales woman brought clothes back for Mike to try on. They selected things fairly quickly, had a tailor come over to hem the pants and fit the jackets. Then they were off to shoes where at least the choices were fewer.

As they got in the car to head home, Mike said "are you sure the pants shouldn't be baggier? They feel weird. I can't believe there are guys who dress like that every day."

"The pants are fine. They aren't jeans. They are supposed to sit at your waist not several inches below it. I can't say I'd like wearing a suit to work everyday, but there are worse things. Now, why don't we shoot some hoops when we get home?"

"Sure, Nick. You are so going down."

Sara had a much easier time making sure that Lacey and Lisa had everything they needed for the trip. They both had clothes for everything, but the wedding already and the wedding clothes were easily taken care of. Lisa had a new dress that was just lovely from one of Jillian's friends who loved to make hand smocked dresses, but so far only had grandsons. Lacey had seen the perfect dress at Laura Ashley while at the mall with some friends and bought it after a phone consultation with Sara.

The books finally arrived. Nick was kind of secretly hoping that they would get lost in the mail or something, but no such luck. Nick and Sara agreed that on Sunday afternoon they would sit down and tell Lisa about the baby with the books as back-up for any questions she might have.

Lisa was cooking away at her toy kitchen set when Sara called her saying "Lisa please come her here, Daddy and I want to talk to you and then read some books. OK?"

"OK! We read Snow White!" said Lisa as she climbed up on the couch with Nick and Sara.

"No peanut, not Snow White. We've got some new books for you, but first Mommy and I want to talk to you." Nick couldn't seem to continue after that statement.

"Lisa, Daddy and I love you very much. In fact, we have so much love in this family, we thought it would be nice to have someone else to share it with. In May, when summer starts, I'm going to have a baby and you are going to get a new brother or sister," said Sara.

"Like Lars?" asked Lisa.

"Yes, like Lars, only the baby could be a girl like you," answered Nick.

"Mommy get all big like Amy?" asked Lisa squishing up her nose like she was trying to think.

"Yes, Lisa. I'll get all big like Amy because the baby is growing inside me."

"Mommy, how da baby get in you?" asked Lisa.

"Well, baby, I'm glad you asked. Daddy and I have some books to explain that to you. Can we read one?"

"Mommy! I no baby! I big girl! Daddy read."

"Of course my big girl, I'll be happy to read to you," answered Nick.

Nick began to read  _How Babies are Made_. Lisa listened but didn't seem to have any questions or be all that interested. In fact, when they finished, Lisa asked to read Snow White next.

While Lisa was looking for Snow White, Sara said, "Well it looks like she doesn't have many questions now. That wasn't as bad as you thought it would be Nick was it?"

"No," said Nick smiling. "It was fine. Can you read Snow White? I want to go email Mike's and Lacey's teachers about missing school on Wednesday and Monday."

"Sure," said Sara leaning over to kiss Nick.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Chapter 10**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! It's so nice to know someone is reading and enjoying! Thanks for Audra for betaing!**

**Chapter 10**

**Monday Morning**

"Greg. Greg, we're here," said Nick trying to wake Greg up and let him know that they have arrived at the crime scene.

"Sorry, Nick. Sleep is a precious commodity and I haven't been getting much of it lately."

"No problem, man. Let's get this taken care of."

After Nick and Greg processed the scene a routine break-in (although one where a significant amount of expensive collectibles were stolen), they got back in the Denali to head back to the lab.

"So Greg is Lars not letting you get much sleep?"

"No he's not. I'm not sure he believes in sleep. Having Lacey come by has helped Amy out, but it's still overwhelming. I think his internal clock is set to night shift, which would be fine except that mine isn't anymore."

"I guess you just have to hang on. It should be better soon. You know Sara and I would be willing to do whatever we can to help. I suspect that this could be us in less than a year."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not sure there is anything anyone can do. It's hard though. I feel a little bit like I'm losing Amy. I went to put my arm around her and pull her close last night and she tensed up, pulled away, and reminded me that she hasn't had her six week check-up yet so we couldn't do anything. I know that. I just wanted to hold my wife close to me."

"Did you tell her that Greg? From what I've gathered from the slew of books that Sara has around the house and things my sisters have said, she's probably feeling insecure. Several of my sisters mentioned feeling like a milk machine. She's not fully healed, she's probably not that interested in anything intimate yet and not used to not being interested on a regular basis. Just remind her that you don't want anything she doesn't, but would like to be close again and don't freak out if she's not up to being touched even innocently."

"Thanks, Nick that all makes sense. By the way you remember what I said about being a little concerned about seeing Amy nurse Lars? It was that kind of wonderful moment that you hear about. At least for me. Amy told me she thought she looked awful and was pretty sore."

"Well, last night I survived reading Lisa How Babies are Made. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Of course Lisa wasn't that interested and wanted to move on to Snow White."

"I remember that book!" said Greg. "My mother read it to me when I was in preschool and my teacher was pregnant. I upset the family across the street because I told those kids that the stork didn't bring babies and explained the whole process. Then my mom had to explain to me that some people were just crazy. Those kids never were allowed to talk to me again."

"Nice, Greg. Hopefully, none of Lisa's classmate's parents are like that. I hadn't even thought about what she might say at day care," replied Nick.

At the same time Sara and Catherine were in the lab working on catching up on paper work. Catherine asked Sara "How are you feeling? You haven't been green at all lately."

"I've been doing well. I discovered that ginger ale and soda crackers before I do anything else keep me from being too green. I'm a little tired, but I've been trying to get to bed earlier. All in all things are good, although I really miss good coffee."

"That's good. I can imagine you miss coffee, but it's a small price to pay. Someday you will get your body back. You know, Sara, if there is anything that you want to ask me you can. It's been awhile since I had Lindsey, but some things you never forget."

"Thanks Cath. I'll keep that in mind." Sara then continued on with her paperwork.

* * *

That evening, Sara was finishing up a salad for dinner, when Nick walked into the kitchen and said "Somehow Mike and Lacey can each miss two days of school and have almost nothing to do in the way of make-up work. Are you sure that we are happy with their school?"

 

"What do you mean by almost nothing?" asked Sara.

"Well, Lacey's English class is watching the movie of Great Expectations on both days. Mike's English class is watching the movie of Ordinary People. Those were the books they just finished. In both ninth and tenth grade Spanish they are also watching a movie both days. However, I'm not sure how much they will learn from watching Top Gun dubbed into Spanish."

"Well," said Sara. "I think they might learn to swear in Spanish. I would imagine we can arrange for that in Dallas too."

"Very funny. I'm not finished though. In biology, Lacey is watching a film on photosynthesis called Our Mister Sun. This film is a Disney film from 1956 and will occupy two class days since Monday is the day progress reports are handed out. Mike's chemistry class is doing a little better. They are doing a lab on liquid nitrogen and then reading the next chapter in their text books. Choir is choir so not much for either of them to make up there. Nothing for Lacey to make up in PE either. In World History, Mike's class will be watching presentations of group projects. He will present his before we leave. Ms. Washington is showing both her Algebra and Geometry classes Donald in Mathmagic Land and Math, Who Needs It?"

"Wait did you just tell me that our kids will miss two days of school and Lacey will have nothing to make-up and Mike will have to begin reading the next chapter in his chemistry book? Are there any assignments based on the movies?"

"Yes, I did just say that and no there are no assignments based on the movies. Although, we could teach them to swear in Spanish. I know for a fact that Mike saw the liquid nitrogen demonstration the teacher described at the Dallas Science Center a few years ago."

"Well, it is the day before Thanksgiving on that Wednesday and on Monday the teachers have to fill in progress reports by hand, but that does seem to be a very, very light schedule. However, it is the best public school in Las Vegas. Mike and Lacey are doing well. They seem to be learning. Besides where could we afford to send them besides Catholic school? That would be a stretch and none of the schools that admit girls are as good as their school and it's debatable if the boys schools are any better."

"I know Sar'. You are right. It's just sometimes I wonder if they both could do more."

"Nick, they probably could do more, but they are getting a fine education and they have time to be kids. They sing. Mike plays basketball. Lacey is on student council. They can push themselves to their academic limits in college or graduate school if they want. Besides, if we are going to go into debt for their educations, which you know I would for college, that is where it makes most sense."

"You're right Sar'. I'll call the crowd for dinner."

* * *

**Tuesday Afternoon**

 

"Hey Warrick! Come on in. Nick and I really appreciate you taking us to the airport. We'll be ready to leave in just a minute," said Sara.

Sara went into the kitchen to finish packing a bottle of juice and other snacks. Lisa of course was generally too old for a bottle, but giving her one on a plane helped keep her ears clear and was easy to get through security. The snacks were mostly for Lisa, but Sara included extra in case someone else wanted something and gum to help unstop people's ears.

As soon as Sara finished, she found that Nick has Mike and Lacey were loading the Denali and was strapping in Lisa's travel car seat/stroller. Sara thought that she really owes Jillian Stokes for training her son so well for life in a big family. Nick seems to instinctively know how to organize the whole bunch for travel. Being the youngest of seven makes getting their three on the road seem easy to Nick. Plus, being the youngest of seven has perks like hand me downs that Sara has only recently discovered. Lisa's travel car seat/stroller is one of those. It's an airline approved safety seat that has wheels that pop out of the bottom and a handle that pops out of the top so there is no need to travel with both a car seat and a stroller. It's not quite as nice as either a regular safety seat or stroller, but only having to lug one through the airport makes life so much easier. Suzy used it for her kids who have out grown it and handed it down.

On the drive to the airport Mike and Lacey caught Warrick up on what is going on with their lives. Lacey interrogates Warrick on his plans to spend Thanksgiving with Catherine and Lindsey, who is home from college. Something is definitely going on there.

Several hours later when they are finally settled on the plane, Nick looked across the aisle where the set of three seats is occupied by Mike and Lacey with Lisa strapped down in the middle being entertained by her brother and sister, and said to Sara "We've got pretty good kids don't we? I don't think there are many teenagers that can so easily step in and prevent a toddler melt down."

"They are pretty special," answered Sara. "As both teens and toddlers go ours are pretty even tempered and don't act too much like the stereotype of their ages. Although, after Lisa's full on terrible two's tantrum in the airport, we know where the stereotype comes from. Thank goodness that she was willing to be reasonable for Mike and Lacey."

Nick took Sara's hand in his and said, "As special as they are, let's pretend those kids across the aisle don't belong to us, unless they need something, and talk about other things like we did before we were parents."

The rest of the flight and the drive to the ranch was uneventful. As soon as they pulled up into the driveway, Bill and Jillian were outside waiting to greet them. A flurry of hugs was exchanged. A very sleepy Lisa clung to Sara, unable to quite wake up. Jillian said "Sara, I thought we'd put Lisa and Lacey in the room they were in last time. You can go put Lisa down in there if you want. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get my fill of that grandbaby."

"Thanks Jillian. I think I'll do that," answered Sara as she began to make her way upstairs with the half-asleep little girl. Sara laid Lisa down on one of the twin beds in a room that used to belong to two of Nick's sisters. She took Lisa's shoes and pants off leaving her in her underwear and a t-shirt to sleep, tucked her in, kissed her forehead and tip toed out of the room.

Sara came downstairs and found the family in the kitchen. Jillian had set out some snacks and everyone was sitting around the table talking and laughing. Sara paused before she entered the room and thought about how thankful she was to have joined and helped build this wonderful family.

As Sara walked into the kitchen, Nick looked up and said, "Now that you have Lisa settled would you like something to drink?"

"Thanks. Some water would be great," said Sara as she sat down at the table. Nick brought her over a glass of over water. Soon Sara was caught up in listening to Lacey tell Jillian about homecoming, while Mike, Nick and Bill talked sports at the other end of the table.

"So who wants to go riding with me tomorrow morning?" asked Bill.

"Grandpa, I'd love to," said Lacey.

"Sure!" said Mike.

"Of course. Riding is one thing I really miss in Vegas," said Nick.

"What about you Sara?" said Bill.

"I think I'll pass this time," said Sara. Riding was not something Sara was especially fond of and she didn't want to take any chances of taking a hard fall off a horse and hurting the baby.

Nick and Bill started to protest, but Jillian shot them a look and said "That would be fine Sara, I can see why you might want to stay off a horse these days. How is the newest baby Stokes treating you?"

Both Nick and Bill looked sheepish when they realized why Sara had turned down riding.

Sara answered saying "I'm having a really easy time Jillian. I had some morning sickness early on and I've been a little more tired that usual, but otherwise I'm fine."

"That's wonderful dear. You look fantastic. I'm afraid it is getting to be past my bedtime so I'm going to head up to bed. Lacey you know where you are staying. There are pink towels out in the bathroom for you and Lisa. Mike, you are in your father's old room like last time and there are green towels in the bathroom for you. Nick and Sara, y'all are in the main guest room and everything is out in that bathroom."

"Thanks Mom," said Nick. "Sleep well."

"I'm going to head up too," said Bill.

Everyone said good night and headed off to bed.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Chapter 11**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! It's so nice to know someone is reading and enjoying! Thanks for Audra for betaing!**

* * *

Wednesday morning, Sara woke up to find Nick's side of the bed cold. Then she looked at the clock and was shocked to find that she had slept until 10:30. She got up out of bed and went downstairs to find out where everyone was.

"Morning Sara! Nick and Bill took the kids riding. They took a picnic lunch with them so it should be this afternoon before we see them again. Can I get you anything to eat?"

"Good morning Jillian. I'm fine at the moment. I can't believe I slept this late. So Nick and Bill took Lisa with them too?"

"Yes, Bill's been itching to have a little one ride in the saddle with him so he can explain everything. Besides that little girl, just like her sister and her cousins, has him wrapped around her finger. Sometimes he looks like a big gruff cowboy, but he's a softy for his girls."

"His son is the same way. Nick loves Mike and I can tell that he really enjoys having a son, but there is something about dads and daughters."

"Sara are you going to find out if you are going to have a boy or girl? Are you planning to have an amnio?" asked Jillian.

"Honestly, Nick and I haven't had a chance to talk about it much. I think we probably will find out the gender. I'll probably have the amnio since more information is always good, but I can't imagine not going through with the pregnancy. Maybe if they found one of those problems where the baby would die immediately after birth, but not something like Down's syndrome where they can live a good life."

"I think that's wise Sara, but you know as far Bill and I are concerned whatever you and Nicky decide is right for your family is right. Now do I need to take you shopping for some maternity clothes? You aren't showing at all, but someday you will be."

"Well, I don't think there is a force on this earth that could get me to a mall this weekend, but I will need some eventually. I've got a friend I can borrow some tops from, but since I'm taller her pants won't work. I don't want to buy too much because this is the last time I'm doing this. After this baby is born, for the first time in our married life Nick and I will go back to using birth control. I'm thrilled about this baby and we were open to the possibility, but another long shot baby will have us sending kids to college until we are old enough to retire!"

"I know what you mean. Suzy was supposed to be our last baby, but Bill and I got careless and along came Nicky. Which we were thrilled about, but when they told me after being in labor for what seemed like forever, that they needed to do a c-section, I told them to tie my tubes while they were in there. Now, Sara why don't you go get dressed and we'll go out and get lunch at my favorite little tea shop?"

"Sounds great," said Sara.

Jillian and Sara had a nice lunch out. Sara was always glad to get a chance to talk to Jillian. Without thinking about it she shared things with Jillian that bothered her that often she hadn't put words to before, like how adding another baby to their already busy lives would work, how she hoped Lacey held off on dating awhile longer or how to make sure Lacey and Lisa made better choices in men than she had in her early years.

As Sara and Jillian entered the house, Lisa came running over to Sara with her arms up waiting to be picked up saying "Mommy, I rode a horse with Grandpa! We had a picnic. Can I have a horsie for home?"

"Lisa that's great! I'm glad you had fun. I'm sorry peanut, but you can't have a horse at home. We don't have room. Where would you ride a horse? Around the block?"

Lisa thought for a minute and said "No, no space for a horse at home. Me ride Grandpa's horse here."

"That's right," said Nick taking her out of Sara's arms. "You are going to have to stop asking Mommy to pick you up and instead get her to sit down next to you. Pretty soon the baby we talked about growing in Mommy's tummy is going to make it hard to pick you up."

Lisa scowled like she wasn't sure what to make of this fact. Bill jumped in and said "Lisa, I need to go get some supplies for tonight's barbeque. Want to come along?"

"Yes, I go with Grandpa."

"What are Lacey and Mike up to?" ask Sara.

"Well, I felt like we shouldn't be letting them miss two days of school without having to do any work, so I told them they should help Jorge in the barn and practice their Spanish. I was going to see if I could rent Great Expectations and Ordinary People but Cisco tells me that the movies aren't that good or very much like the books."

"I think your father is right, but practicing their Spanish is a good idea."

"Mom, can you keep an eye on the kids for us? I'd like to take Sara out and show her some things," said Nick.

"Sure dear. Remember that Suzy and her family and Karen and her family will be arriving just before dinner tonight."

Nick takes Sara out and shows her some of his favorite places from growing up. They do this whenever they visit and he still manages to find new things to show her.

* * *

That evening the other out of town Stokes kids arrived with their families. Karen, her husband Cole, and their daughter Caroline came from Austin. Karen and Cole are both professors at the University of Texas at Austin in the economics and political science departments respectively. Caroline, their only child, is a senior in high school. Suzy and her husband Aaron came from Houston with their two children Adam and Lauren. Adam is six and in first grade and Lauren is four and in pre-school. Suzy is a social worker for the county and Adam is a chemistry professor at Rice University.

 

Dinner is going to be the traditional pre-Thanksgiving hot dog, hamburger cook out spear headed by Bill. To keep things simple they are using paper plates and plastic utensils around the formal dining table, which is the only place with enough space for all of them. The adults (and teens) are sitting around talking and waiting for dinner to be ready when a tearful Lisa and an annoyed Adam come running into the room.

"Daddy, Adam's mean!" says Lisa throwing herself into Nick's lap.

"Adam what is this about?" says Aaron in that dad voice that indicates you are going to be in trouble unless you have a very good explanation.

"Lisa said Aunt Sara's going to have a baby and I said that she's lying because Uncle Nick and Aunt Sara 'dopted Lacey, Mike, and Lisa because they couldn't have babies," says Adam beginning to look a little fearful.

"Well," says Sara. "The cat's out of the bag. We were going to announce tomorrow, but some of you get to find out early. I'm pregnant and due in late May or early June."

"That's right," says Nick "In a way Lisa and Adam were both right. We didn't think Aunt Sara and I could have babies and that's one reason we adopted our family, but sometimes doctors are wrong and surprises happen. Lisa and Adam, why don't you guys hug and apologize to each other."

Lisa and Adam did as suggested and everyone went back to congratulating Nick and Sara.

* * *

Later that evening, Sara and Suzy were making up cots for Lisa and Lauren in Jillian's sewing room (Caroline was going to take Lisa's place in the room with Lacey), when Suzy said, "I'm sorry Adam helped Lisa spill the beans."

 

"Don't worry about it. We figured Lisa might tell, but I thought we needed to tell her first so we could answer any questions she had."

"I bet Nick loved that. Nick's always been easily embarrassed by any talk of sex."

"Well, he was a bit uncomfortable with telling Lisa and I think he'd like to send Lacey to a convent so she could never date, but even when we were just friends I never noticed him getting embarrassed when talking about sex. I can see it though. I think maybe the job forced him not too. It's hard to do a good job if you get too easily flustered."

"Believe me, I understand that," said Suzy. "Some of the things I hear at work are outrageous and I'm sure that is nothing compared to what you see."

"Besides, I think there is a side to your brother that you don't know. Once in the context of a case, before we were dating, I got him to admit to me that multiple partner sex wasn't all that unusual at frat parties. I also know that when I first came to Vegas he managed to get involved with a girl who was leaving prostitution and had to admit to sleeping with her hours before her former pimp killed her. Finally, no man can be as skilled as your baby brother is without some practice."

"OK Sara. I now officially know way more about my baby brother's sexual history than I care to. I can tell you that whatever experience he had in the past is nothing compared to what he has with you, he never looked at any of them the way he looks at you and he never talked about any of them the way he talked about you even when you were just friends."

Sara and Suzy rejoined the family in the family room and found that Jillian had the grandkids sitting around her on the couch, she had photo albums opened and was telling her grandkids stories about their parents. At one point Lisa said, "Where's Mommy?"

Sara piped up saying, "I'm right here pumpkin."

Lisa rolled her eyes at her mother (clearly influence of her older brother and sister) and said "No not now, in the book. Where's mommy in the book?"

Nick spoke up and said, "Peanut, your Mommy and I didn't meet until we were grown-ups in Las Vegas. While I was busy being a little boy in Texas, Mommy was busy being a little girl in California."

Lisa was clearly trying to take in this information when Jillian said, "Lisa most people don't meet the person they fall in love with until they are all grown-up. So right now the little boy that you will fall in love with and have a family with is with his family."

Lisa looked at her Grandmother like she was crazy, first apparently Daddy and Mommy hadn't always been Daddy and Mommy and now this, "But Grandma, boys are YUCCKKY!"

Everyone laughed at Lisa, which she didn't understand. Nick said, "Lisa, you can think boys are yucky for as long as you want and it will be ok with me."

Suzy said "I think it's time for baths for Lauren, Lisa, and Adam. Who is going to go first?"

Lauren said, "Lisa and I can share a bath. Can Caroline and Lacey give it to us?"

"Sure," said Caroline. "Fine with me," said Lacey.

"Thanks girls," said Sara.

Bill says, "I think I'm going to go check the score of the game."

Like some kind of middle school dance, all of a sudden, Bill and the men were in the family room watching sports and the women were left in the living room to chat.

"Well, this is nice and stereotypical," said Karen. "But, to change that I'd have to go watch football and I'll get enough of that tomorrow."

"Well, Karen, I think we spend enough time in professional lives breaking down stereotypes, so I'm willing to live with this," said Sara. The women all laughed.

A little while later, Caroline came into the living room and said "Lacey will bring the girls down to say goodnight after they get into their jammies. I thought I'd get Adam for his bath."

"Thanks Caroline. He's in the family room with the men. Thanks for being a good sport about this," said Suzy.

"It's no problem, Aunt Suzy. I'm having fun."

Caroline went off in search of Adam.

"Karen, she really is a natural with the kids," said Sara.

"Thanks. Right now she says she wants to be an elementary school teacher. Of course when I was her age, I wanted to be a vet so we'll see," said Karen.

Caroline stuck her head into the family room and said "Adam it's your turn in the tub."

"No," said Adam.

"What do you mean 'no' Adam? It's time for your bath. Go with Caroline," said Aaron.

"But Dad, she's a GIRL, I'm too old for a GIRL to give me bath," said Adam.

"Don't be silly Adam, your Mom gives you a bath and at home Angie gives you a bath," said Aaron.

Mike sensed that this was not going to go well and thought he could calm the situation. So he spoke saying, "Hey, Adam. How about I help you get ready for bed?"

"OK," said Adam while beaming.

"Thanks Mike," said Aaron.

After all the little kids were all bathed and put to bed, Mike rejoined the men in the family room.

Bill said, "Thanks Mike. I understand you are also a big help with Lisa."

"Thanks Grandpa. It's no big deal," said Mike shyly.

"Mike, take your chance to practice now. It will make it easier when you have your own kids. I was an only child and I never spent time with little kids. When we had Caroline, Karen had a big head start on me. We both had to figure out how to be parents, but I had never even held a baby before. You'll be in a better place," said Cole.

"Besides," said Aaron. "You can use it as a skill to pick-up girls. I understand that your dad did that with his nieces and nephews before he met your mom, especially when he was in his twenties."

At that Nick started turning pink and decided it was time for redirection. "I do believe Mike has already figured that out. I understand that Katy volunteered the two of you to babysit Lisa some night so Sara and I could go out to dinner. Plus, that time she saw you with baby Lars, I couldn't figure out who she was more fascinated by Lars or you with Lars."

Mike just shrugged and said, "Katy likes kids. She thinks I'll be a good dad someday." Then as he realized what he had said Mike started to back pedal. "Not that we have any plans for anything like that. I mean we're not even . . . Oh, God just kill me now." Mike realized all the men in the room were laughing at him.

Nick said, "It's ok. We know what you mean."

They watched the rest of the game in comfortable silence.

* * *

Thanksgiving morning, Sara woke up very early in Nick's arm with his fingers splayed across her belly. "You know it will be a few weeks before I can feel the baby move and a few more after that before you can."

 

"I know," said Nick. "But, you've got this little bump here now and it makes everything seem real."

Sara rolled so that she faced Nick and began to kiss him saying, "It's early here. Can you think of anything we can do to pass the time?"

"Sar' I can think of lots of things. You know you've never been this bold when we've been at my folks before. I like this part of you being pregnant," and as he moved his hands to cup her slightly larger breasts, "I like this part of you being pregnant too."

"Nick, that's such a typical American guy thing to say. I think it's mother nature's way of keeping you interested."

Then Nick and Sara became lost in each other and forgot about the rest of world for a while.

* * *

After breakfast, Jillian called Nick into the kitchen. She needed him to go drop some baked goods off at Mrs. Nickerson's house. Mrs. Nickerson was a friend of his mothers, who was widowed. All her kids were coming for Thanksgiving and Jillian was sharing some of her baking with her.

 

Mike volunteered to go with Nick. Nick sensed that his son wanted to talk to him, but knew hurrying him wouldn't do any good. After a couple of minutes Mike spoke up and said "I do think about having kids with Katy someday. Not soon or anything. When we've finished college and gotten married and stuff. I know its not real likely or anything, but I'd like it to happen."

"That's ok you know. Katy's a great girl and if you two still want to be together when you grow up then you have something really special. The only thing I'd say is that you shouldn't close any doors on your future for this. If you are meant to be together then you will be able to get through separate colleges and everything. You know that picture of me with a girl at a dance in my room? Well, I thought I'd marry her one day. Obviously, that didn't work out, but I learned some things about myself and relationships. It's all a part of growing up. I do have some friends from high school though who did marry their high school sweethearts so it can happen."

"Thanks Nick. Also, I've decided that I wanted you and Sara to adopt me if you guys still want to."

Nick grinned from ear to ear and said, "Of course we still want to. We'll start the paperwork when we get home."

Just then they arrived at Mrs. Nickerson's. Getting out of the minivan, Nick managed to catch-up with Mike and dropped his arm around his shoulders for a quick squeeze.

Mrs. Nickerson opened the door saying, "Nicholas Stokes is this the son of yours that your mother talks about? I understand he is quite the basketball player."

"Yes, Mrs. Nickerson, the is my son, Mike, and he is quite the basketball player."

"Nice to meet you ma'am," said Mike as he shook her hand.

"So Nicholas how many kids do you and your wife, Sara, have now?"

"We have three, but we just found out that Sara is pregnant and number four will be arriving in May."

"That's wonderful! So many young people have forgotten the joy of a big family. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!"

"Thanks you, too, Mrs. Nickerson," said Mike and Nick in unison.

"So Nicholas?"

"Like you can talk, Michael."

Mike turned on the radio and the two rode in contented silence.

As soon as they got back to the ranch, Mike headed to the barn. Nick headed into the kitchen hoping he could get a minute alone with Sara to tell her the good news. Nick was thrilled to find Sara sitting in the kitchen with Bill and Jillian.

"Hey guys, on the ride to Mrs. Nickerson's Mike told me he wanted us to adopt him. I told him we'd start the paperwork when we got home."

Sara's eyes teared up as she hugged her husband.

Jillian said, "That's just wonderful. Does this mean you might adopt all three of them this year?"

"Hopefully," said Nick still holding Sara.

"That's just wonderful Pancho."

* * *

**Chapter 12: Chapter 12**

* * *

**Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing  
Thanks to Audra for betaing.

**Chapter 12**

As Nick and Sara were getting dressed for dinner, Sara said, "I need you to go over your siblings, their spouses and their children again. Maybe with diagrams or something."

"Sure, Sara,"say Nick, while putting on his tie, "I'll go through it one more time. Here's how it goes:"

First, there is my brother Will, who is married to Christine. He's a district attorney here in Dallas and Christine is active in the junior league. They have Julie, William, the third, who they call Trey, who is at Yale Law, and Ashley, who is a junior at SMU.

Next is my sister Jill and her husband Eric. They are both corporate lawyers here in Dallas. They have Erica, who is a senior in high school and George who is a freshman in high school.

Then comes my sister Karen who teaches economics at University of Texas, Austin, and her husband Cole who teaches political science. Their daughter Caroline is a senior in high school.

After that there is my sister Erin and her husband Chris. Erin is a doctor and Chris is a cop here in Dallas. They have twin girls, Tiffany, who is a sophomore at Rice, and Tara, who is a sophomore at Texas A&M. Their son Kevin is a junior in high school.

Next comes, my sister Jennifer, who is the director of government affairs for Planned Parenthood of Texas, and her husband Todd, who is in public interest law. They live here in Dallas with their daughter Claire who is in sixth grade and their son Jeff, who is in fourth grade.

Finally, there is Suzy, who is a county social worker and Aaron who is a chemistry professor at Rice. They live in Houston. Their kids are Adam, age six, and Lauren, age four.

"Thanks Nick. I don't think there are this many people that I'm related too by blood alive so it's a little overwhelming. I remember the names and spouses, but the jobs and kids still trip me up."

"Don't worry about it. We need to hurry or we'll be late," said Nick.

The whole Stokes clan, as well as Julie's future in-laws, were gathered for dinner. There were several tables throughout the dining room, living room, and kitchen. There was no "kids table" or "grown-up table" because Jillian liked the family to mix.

Currently, they were all in the dining room waiting for Bill to say the blessing. "Before I say the blessing, I understand that there are a couple of announcements to be made. Who's first, Julie and Robert or Nick and Sara?"

Julie piped up "I think Uncle Nicky and Sara should go first. They've got news that people have been waiting for Uncle Nicky to share since I was in grade school."

"Well, thank you Julia. Let me re-iterate that anyone old enough to drive is welcome to just call me Nick and no one is welcome to call me Uncle Nicky. Also, my lovely niece exaggerates. Mom and Cisco would have tanned my hide if I had made an announcement like this while Julie was in grade school since I would have been in high school myself. Anyway, Sara and I are thrilled to announce that she's pregnant. The baby is due in late May or early June."

There were congratulations all around. Finally, Bill quieted everyone down saying "Let's let Julie and Robert say their piece so we can eat."

"Well," said Julie. "The short version of the announcement would be ditto. The long version is that Robert and I are also expecting. It seems like it will be a contest to see if Grandma and Grandpa get Grandbaby Number 17 or Great-Grandbaby Number 1 first."

After another round of congratulations died down, Bill led the family in a blessing. Everyone sat down to a wonderful and joyous family dinner.

A couple of hours later, some people were helping with clean-up, others were watching football, and some people were hanging out talking in the living room. Sara and Julie had been shooed out of the kitchen and told to sit down. Sara went to find Nick. He was in the family room watching football. Sara climbed into the easy chair Nick was sitting in with him and watched the game. She drifted off to sleep.

Nick tried to slip out of the chair without waking Sara, but he felt her stir. "Hey Sar' you dozed off during the game. I was just going to join in the annual family football game, but you can stay here."

"No, that's ok. I don't think I'm up for playing this year. You all seem to forget that this is supposed to be a touch game. I would like to watch."

Pretty much everyone but Jillian, Sara and Julie were involved in the game. Bill was the ref. Adam and Jeff were his assistants and Claire, Lauren and Lisa were cheerleaders/in charge of refreshments.

After Bill made the announcement that after last year's Thanksgiving Day emergency room visit that this would really, truly be a touch only game, Jillian went inside satisfied that her work was done.

"So Julie, your mom plays football?" said Sara.

"Not really, but she kind of pretends for awhile. She runs away from the ball," said Julie.

"I can't believe my daughter is out there playing cheerleader. This is worse than her Snow White and Sleeping Beauty obsession," said Sara.

"It's ok Sara. It won't kill her. Some of her aunts and cousins were cheerleaders and most of us turned out o.k. I would limit contact to my mother though. Being an SMU cheerleader was one of the highlights of her life. Plus, I promise to help deprogram Lisa. I'll get her feminist fairy tales for Christmas."

"Thanks! But what's this I hear about you being a cheerleader?"

"What can I say, I was my mother's daughter and lived in Texas. It wasn't until I went north to college that I become a feminist and a democrat. I think my mother's just thankful, I didn't become a lesbian," said Julie.

"You're awful. I can see why you are Nick's favorite."

"Thanks. I'll have you know that your husband doesn't share your anti-cheerleader stance or at least he didn't. I pretty sure he dated a couple," said Julie.

"Well, Nick's taste in women before me was known to be bad. He's just about lived it down at work. Trust me however, as a dad, he was just as happy as I was when Lacey decided she wanted to be part of student council and not cheerleading."

"Wow. He has changed. For middle school tryouts, he got his girlfriend, who was a Rice cheerleader, to teach me her routines. He also slipped condoms in my purse before my senior prom, but not before reminding me I didn't owe any guy anything."

"Julie, you are giving me all sorts of interesting information. I think everything he did growing up and everything we see at work hits him a little hard when it comes to his girls. He tries hard not to have a double standard, but deep down I think he'd like to lock Lacey in her room until she's thirty. By the way, that's for telling Nick that we can use your and Robert's surprise as an object lesson for Mike and Lacey."

"Well, I feel a little foolish, because it took my boss dragging me to the doctor to figure out I was pregnant. It never occurred to me that things could go wrong," said Julie shifting in her seat a bit.

"Julie, it took my husband getting an email from his niece to make us realize I might be expecting. Besides, we are forty years old with two teenagers and a toddler. Once, I'm showing especially if I'm out with Mike or Lacey everyone is going to think we had a surprise. Which we did, but not exactly like everyone was thinking."

Sara and Julie were watching the game when Lisa, bored with cheerleading comes to join them.

"Julie" said Lisa "you've got a baby growing in your tummy like mommy?"

"Yes," answered Julie.

"But you no married and Adam says you've got to be married to have a baby," said Lisa clearly trying to puzzle this out.

Quickly Sara jumps in and says "Well, Julie and Robert are almost married so it's ok. Sometimes grownups who love each other who aren't married make babies too."

"Mommy was it nice making the baby with Daddy? It sounds kind of yucky?"

"Lisa, making a baby with your Daddy was the nicest thing in the whole world. In fact, sometimes grownups who love each other make love even if they aren't planning on a baby. It's only yucky if you aren't a grownup and you aren't in love. Does that make sense?"

"Yes, Mommy. I go cheer now!"

"Well, I hope I handled that one ok. What do you think Julie?"

"I think you did just fine. I hope I do this well, with number one when I am pregnant with number two."

"Well, right about now, I wish I could drink," said Sara laughing.

Just then Jillian came and sat down next to Sara and Julie and said "what's so funny?"

"Well," said Sara "I was just thinking how nice a drink would be. Adam seems to have struck again so Lisa came to ask how Julie and Robert could be having a baby if they weren't married and then she asked me if making a baby with Nick was nice because it sounded yucky to her."

"Oh dear," said Jillian. "What did you say?"

"I told her that since Robert and Julie were almost married it was ok. I told her that sometimes grownups who love each other who aren't married make babies. I told her that making love was one of the best things in the world, but that it is kind of yucky if you aren't a grown-up in love."

"Well, I think that was a very nice answer. Kids do things like that to you. When he was Lisa's age Will asked me what a virgin was during church after reading the Apostle's Creed? I wanted the floor to open up and swallow us. It's not like I could tell him it wasn't a nice word and he could learn when he was older since we said it in church. Would you girls mind helping pull out the leftovers so we can feed this crew again when we are done with the game?"

"Sure," said Sara and Julie getting up to help.

* * *

**Chapter 13: Chapter 13**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Summary: Julie's wedding**

**Authors Notes: Thanks to my beta reader Audra.**

The day after Thanksgiving, Sara discovered something else wonderful about being married to the youngest of seven children. You had reasonably grown-up nieces and nephews who took your kids off your hands for the day. There was a group going to the zoo, a group going to the mall, and a group going to play paintball. Jillian and the mother's of the chaperones had all made it very clear that the consequences of not having everyone back in one piece in time to get cleaned up for the rehearsal dinner were too dire to even speak.

Caroline and Ashley volunteered to take some of the younger kids to the zoo. Lisa, Lauren. Adam and Claire were going. Lisa loved nothing more than the attention of these "big girl" cousins of hers.

Trey, George, Kevin, Mike, and Jeff were going to play paintball. However, it was beginning to look like Trey wouldn't have to play chaperone because at least Eric, Chris, and Nick were thinking of joining in too. This caused Jillian to repeat her threat about not being back on time and in one piece. She also added that she was sure their wives also had something in mind like sleeping on the couch perhaps. Looks from their wives confirmed this.

Tiffany, Tara, Erica and Lacey were going to the mall to bargain hunt. They also mentioned getting their nails done. In addition to the other threat about being on time and in once piece, Jillian suggested that Tiffany and Tara think about how Bill would react to anything they let Erica and Lacey buy.

Christine was off being the mother of the bride, but otherwise the Stokes women were hanging out at the ranch. Sara got the feeling that no one really missed Christine all that much. She found she really enjoyed her sisters-in-law. In fact, she wondered if this was what it might have been like to have sisters.

Now that the men and the children were gone, Sara found herself being asked lots of questions about her pregnancy. Not nosey questions, just the concerned questions of family who knew that it was not from lack of trying that Nick and Sara had not made this announcement earlier. Suzy offered to box-up and send her maternity clothes to Sara since they were about the same size. Suzy reminded Sara that she could pass them on or send them back but she could not give them to charity or sell them because, of course, as soon as you did that you got pregnant again.

Jill couldn't stop laughing at the comment about giving away maternity clothes and said "Sara, believe it or not, I still have mine in the attic somewhere. I think I could probably sell them or give them to charity without fear now. I'd offer to share, but I don't think time has been kind to those clothes."

Suzy and Jen both offered to send Sara their breast pumps so she could have one at home and one at work if she'd like to. When Sara, blanched a bit, Suzy jumped in and said that Sara could and should get all new rubber parts that touched her or her milk, but that the pump part was the expensive part that never came in contact with either the mother or the milk.

This gave Sara a chance to ask her sisters-in law, all about how they had handled working and breast feeding. She mentioned that Amy was a little afraid that Greg got left out of bonding with Lars. The diversity of experiences that the women described made Sara feel better. All of her nieces and nephews had been healthy children and they had all bonded well with their fathers.

"OK one more question and then we'll let Sara off the hot seat and I get to ask it," said Suzy. "Nick said Mike agreed to be adopted, he also mentioned that there is one more relatively proforma hearing before Lisa's biological mother's rights are terminated. I also know that you were moving slow with Lacey to ease the comfort of some elderly great-aunts, who I would imagine are not getting more lucid. So does this mean that you could make it legal with all three kids this year?"

"Hopefully, it does," says Sara. "I'm not ready to get too excited because, you more than anyone else, Suzy, know how much can go wrong."

"Still, I would imagine that you and Nick will be Las Vegas's foster parents of the year. Not many people adopt three unrelated kids from foster care. I wish we could get more people to do that," said Suzy.

"Well, Nick and I wanted a good sized family. We weren't actually looking for teenagers to adopt. I mean we are thrilled that we are going to be able to adopt Mike and Lacey, but we were looking for an older child that needed a permanent home. Lots of teenagers aren't adoptable but need a place that will always be home even when they age out of the system. We got really lucky. We have three wonderful kids who for the most part have no scars from being in the system. In many, many ways we got the easy kids from the system. Mike and Lacey came to us from families not unlike ours. Lisa has never had another family. They are white so there aren't issues of racial and ethnic identity to deal with. They were never abused. Their hair and skin tone blends with this family so they don't stick out as not belonging. The people who do the real heroic work take the kids who are in and out of care or the kids that have scars from extreme abuse or neglect. Nick and I got the easy ones and for that we are thankful."

After that somber bit of conversation, the topic switched to where the high school juniors and seniors were thinking of applying. The list was long and varied. This group was looking at more places outside Texas than their older cousins were, but who know where they would end up enrolling.

Just as they had exhausted who was applying to college where, the kids and a few husbands began arriving back from their day out. Everyone had headed Jillian's warnings and was back on time and in one piece.

* * *

The rehearsal dinner was a lovely event. Robert's family has arranged for the younger children to be seated in a different part of the restaurant with kid friendly food and things to do. The high school age cousins from all the families had been convinced to keep an eye on the younger ones. Both Nick and Sara enjoyed the toasts and stories from Julie and Robert's friends. It was a very enjoyable evening.

 

Julie's wedding was absolutely beautiful. The ceremony was lovely. The church was decorated very nicely. Lacey watched with starry eyes and Sara could tell she was thinking about her dream wedding some day. Sara leaned over and whispered in Nick's ear "Looks like someone's getting ideas we might need to save up for." Nick smiled a big smile.

The dinner at the reception had been wonderful. Nick was waiting in line at the bar to get some sprite for Sara and watching everyone. Julie and Robert were dancing. Lisa was with Lauren and a bunch of other little girls twirling in circle trying to make their dresses puff out. Sara was sitting at the table and was laughing hard at something one of his sisters had said. Mike was in one corner of the ballroom with a bunch of teenage boys and Lacey was in the other with a bunch of teenage girls. The girls were looking longingly at the dance floor.

On his way back to the table, Nick detoured past the group of teenage boys. He looked at Mike, Kevin and George and said "You'd make your sisters and cousins happy if you would ask them to dance. Your mothers and grandmother would be proud of you."

The boys looked unsure and Kevin said "Uncle Nick isn't that kind gross and wrong. They're family."

Nick laughed and said "I suggested you dance with them, not make out with them. I'm sure I'll end up dancing with my sisters and my mother before the night is over. Besides, there are girls over there you are not related to and once someone breaks the ice you can mix things up."

Nick went back to the table to give Sara her sprite. As Nick sat down Erin asked, "those boys aren't getting into trouble are they?"

"No, I just wanted to suggest that they would make the girls happy if they went over and asked them to dance. I'm not sure they will do it, since they seemed horrified by dancing with girls they were related to."

"Well, Nick dancing as a social ritual is something I'm not sure they understand, but I'm glad you encouraged them. Now I think you should take Sara out on the dance floor" said Erin.

Nick looked at Sara and said "Would you like to dance?"

"I'd love to," Sara answered.

Nick and Sara glided around the dance floor together. Feeling very happy Sara leaned in and whispered in Nick's ear "I love you, I love being part of your family and the family we've made."

Nick responded by whispering in her ear "I love you too Sar."

The dance ended. Sara suggested that Nick go and ask Lacey to dance. She was going to go and ask Mike.

Nick approached the teenager girls and said "Lacey come dance with your Dad."

Pretty soon Nick and Lacey were waltzing on the dance floor. Nick said "you look really pretty tonight honey, I hope you're having fun."

"Thanks, Dad. I am."

"Promise me, I'll get to dance with you at a few more family weddings before I'm dancing with you at your own."

"Of course, Dad. That's ages and ages away."

Just then George came up and tapped Nick on the shoulder and said, "Can I cut in? Lisa fell and scraped her knee and wants her dad."

"Sure, thanks George."

Nick went to find Lisa who just needed a hug from her dad. So, Nick picked her up and held her swaying to the music a bit. He caught sight of Sara dancing with Mike who was obviously counting in his head at the same time. The song ended and Sara came over to him. She asked, "What happened here?"

"I skinned my knee Mommy."

"That's too bad are you o.k.?"

"Daddy made it all better."

Sara smiled at her husband and said, "He's real good at that."

Nick looked out on the dance floor again and saw that the teenagers had started dancing and mixing.

* * *

Sunday morning was busy with the brunch and present opening, but Sunday afternoon was just a lazy day at the ranch. Sara was napping in their room and Nick was sitting out in the back yard, half reading, half watching a game of what he thought was freeze tag in the backyard.

 

Jillian came and sat down beside Nick. "You know I miss the sound of games in the backyard. It's nice to hear it again. I don't miss the squabbling or helping with homework. I should be the world's best speller with all the spelling lists I helped you kids learn. That was something I always wanted to get you younger ones to ask your older brother or sister to help with, but I didn't think it was fair."

"The squabbling is awful, although our bunch doesn't do it that much. Mike and Lacey were beyond spelling words already so Sara and I will only have to do that twice. It's the parent-teacher nights I hate. I don't feel like I learn anything about the kid's teachers and the principal and guidance counselors still get on my nerves. I almost forget I'm supposed to be on their side," said Nick.

"Your father never liked it either. I never minded it so much, but it was always a crazy night. At least they did the elementary school, middle school and high school on different nights. The speeches were often the same. I heard Mrs. Mickely, who taught all of you in kindergarten, give the same speech seven times."

"Did you know Mrs. Mickely called me Suzy about half the time? Apparently, she called Suzy Jenny. The girls sometimes had problems with teachers mixing them up, but except for Mrs. Mickely, I didn't have that problem."

"Nick, I actually did know that. She was the worst with you and it made the least sense. I actually went to talk to the principal about it because I was afraid she was getting senile. That's why you got that teachers aide, to keep an eye on her. She retired the next year. That year we actually spanned K to 12. I felt a bit young compared with the other parents in Will's class and I felt so very old compared to the other parents in your class."

"Sara and I are a bit younger than other high school parents, but not much. What is odd is that we aren't the oldest parents at parent's night at Lisa's daycare. Granted there are not many moms much older than Sara, but there are a whole bunch of dads who are easily ten years older than I am. I can't imagine doing this again in ten years."

"Well, Nicky, I'm pretty sure Sara won't want to do it again then either. They are probably on their second families or married late. You and Sara are very lucky."

"Yes we are Mom."

* * *

**Chapter 14: Chapter 14**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Summary: The family goes back to Las Vegas and Lacey gets into trouble.**

**Authors Notes: Thanks to my beta reader Audra.**

Nick carried his and Sara's bags into the house. Just as he stepped inside he heard Sara say "Guys, I want you to unpack your suitcases and bring all your dirty laundry down to the laundry room. I also want you to bring your dress clothes down and leave them in the dry cleaning basket."

Mike asked "Do I have to do it now, I was going to go see if Katy was around?"

Nick jumped in and said, "Do what Sara said. It won't take that long."

Lacey and Mike carried their stuff upstairs with no further argument.

"Sara why don't you just sit here and play with Lisa. I'll unpack our stuff."

A tired Sara looked up at him and said "Thanks Nicky."

Nick went and unpacked their suitcase, as well as Lisa's clothes, and gathered up all the dirty laundry and carried it to the laundry room off the kitchen. Mike and Lacey had sorted their stuff, so Nick put a load of whites in and then sorted the rest of the laundry.

Nick walked back into the family room and flopped down on the sofa beside Sara and watched Lisa build with her blocks. "So where did our other children go?' asked Nick.

"Lacey went to Jill's and Mike went to the Anderson's. Nick, I love seeing your family, but this trip wore me out. I thought I was going to lose my temper with one of the kids in the airport."

"Well, none of our kids were on their best behavior. Both Mike and Lacey were walking a fine line with their attitudes. I think everyone just needed to get home."

* * *

Sara fiddled with the radio from the passenger's seat of the Denali looking for music both she and Nick liked. She settled on classic rock. They were heading out in the desert where someone had reported seeing a skeleton.

 

"Nick, I thought that since we are going to be staying here this Christmas it would be nice to invite people for dinner. We could have Greg and Amy, Catherine and Lindsey, Warrick and I'll invite Grissom, although I think he volunteered to work." Sara then turned in the passenger's seat to look at Nick.

"Sounds great Sara. Let's talk to the kids about setting aside a Saturday to decorate the tree and the house. How do you want to handle the shopping?"

"Well, I think we can do lots of it online. Karen will let us know which family we drew in the name draw this year. Depending on which family it is maybe we can get something for the whole family. For our kids let's set a limit for each child. We can divvy up the shopping after we get their lists. I think that we should set a lower limit for Lisa. Nothing she wants is as expensive as what Mike and Lacey wants."

"Sara, I think that sounds great. I think it's fair to set a lower limit for Lisa. She'll be happy with whatever she gets. Besides, you can buy lots of Fisher Price stuff for the cost of things Mike and Lacey want."

Just then they arrived at the crime scene where Sofia Curtis was waiting for them. "Nick, Sara, I just heard about the baby congratulations."

"Thanks, Sofia," replied Sara.

"Anyway, I think that we have animal bones out there, but go take a look."

Nick and Sara went to look at the bones. Nick said "I think those might be the bones of a small monkey. Maybe someone abandoned a pet in the desert?"

"I think you are right. Let's collect them and get that confirmed," said Sara as she got out bags to begin collecting the bones.

As they rode back into town Sara said, "I'm going to try and call Mike's social worker and let her know that we want to proceed with the adoption." Sara started scrolling through the numbers on her phone looking for the right one. Nick and Sara both kept the kid's social workers on speed dial because they had to inform them if they were taking the kids out of state over night, if they got seriously injured or anything like that."

"That's odd. It says that the number is no longer in service. I guess I'll call Amy and see what she says."

"Why don't you put it on speaker and we can both talk," said Nick.

Sara did just that and dialed Amy.

"Hello, DCFS, this is Ms. Sanders speaking," said Amy over the phone.

"Hi Amy, it's Sara and I've got Nick here so we've put you on speaker phone."

"Hi guys. What can I do for you?"

"Well, first we wanted to asked you, Greg, and Lars to join us for Christmas dinner if you are going to be in town and second I can't reach Mike's social worker."

"Thanks, we'd love to come for Christmas. I just wasn't up to traveling this year and I'm on call. Who is Mike's social worker again?"

"Stacey someone," says Sara.

"No, I think it is Casey," said Nick.

"We never actually met this one Amy," said Sara.

"Well, you are both right. It was Stacey Casey. She quit last week and we haven't gotten around to reassigning some of her easier cases. You know that we tend to give your kids to the new ones because it's so easy. But enough of that, I'm going to assign myself your kids. What do you need?" says Amy.

"Well, over Thanksgiving Mike said he wanted us to adopt him so we'd like to start that process. Lacey's great aunts have realized that having us adopt Lacey is the only logical option so we'd like to move forward with that too. And can you check on where things are with Lisa's case?" asked Sara.

"That's just wonderful! I've got Mike's electronic file here and I've noted that. Someone will need to come and talk with him about this, but that's really a formality. His case is considered "ready for adoption pending child's approval." Lacey's case notes say she is free for adoption, but that we are working with remaining family members not to challenge it. I'll talk to her great aunts and Lacey of course. With Lisa, it looks like there is one more pre-termination hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Did you know that?" asked Amy.

"No we didn't" said Nick.

"Should we be there or not? We seem to provoke her birth mother, but we can testify to the lack of contact and the opportunities for contact she has had," said Sara unconsciously twisting her wedding band nervously.

"If you guys can swing it, it would be great if you could be there. I'll email you the details. I'll read up on the case and prep the lawyer myself. I'm not sure who the lawyer is so I'll let you know. He or she might want to meet with you. This is that nutty change of venue hearing, but who knows what will happen. The judge might decide to rule on termination. I'll talk to you later," with that Amy hung up.

"Wow, this is really happening isn't it?" said Sara.

"Yeah, it is" said Nick with a big smile.

"This next Tuesday we've got Lisa's hearing and then the next Tuesday we've got a doctors appointment for an ultrasound and the amnio," said Sara.

"I know, I'm excited," said Nick.

When Nick and Sara got back to the lab, Doc Robbins confirmed that the bones were not human and that case was closed.

* * *

The next day, Nick was walking into the county building to get Lisa from daycare when he heard someone call his name. He turned around and saw one of his fraternity brothers Martin Close in the lobby.

 

"Martin"

"Nick"

"Good to see you. What are you doing here?" ask Nick.

"Actually, I'm going to be your lawyer. Actually, your children's lawyer. I just started doing family law for the county. Your case will be one of my first in Nevada. Don't worry it's far from my first. My wife got a dream job at an ad agency here, so we moved. I need to set-up some time to meet with you, your wife and Amy Sanders."

"Listen, I'm on my way to pick up Lisa. She's the one we are in court about on Tuesday. Sara and I will be in court for work (on different cases) most of tomorrow and Friday. Amy Sanders and her husband Greg, who works with Sara and I, are coming over for dinner on Friday night. Why don't you and your wife join us? If you have kids bring them along. We can get business out of the way. Then we catch up and you can meet our kids."

"I'll have to check with Lucy, but it sounds like a great idea. We've got twin three year olds. Are you sure that won't be too much?

"Not at all. Amy and Greg have Lars who is a few months old. Then of course, we have Lisa, who is two. Mike, who is almost 16 and Lacey who is 14. I might see if I can convince Mike and his girlfriend to hang out awhile and watch the kids while we talk. Katy loves little kids."

"I'll talk to Lucy and call you."

* * *

Nick walked in the house listening to Lisa tell him about her day. However, as soon as she saw Sara, he was old news. Lisa ran at Sara squealing "Mommy" and wrapped herself around Sara's legs.

 

"Lisa, let's go sit on the couch. You are getting a little big for Mommy to lift o.k?"

Sara and Lisa sat down on the couch and Lisa chattered away. Nick wandered into the kitchen and began to fix dinner. It was taco night at the Stokes house.

Suddenly, Nick felt Sara's lips on the back of his neck as she wrapped her arms around him and said, "I love you. I love the fact that you are my equal partner at home as well as at work. Sometimes I talk with other mothers and I can't believe how lucky I am."

Nick turned around and held Sara in his arms and said, "I'm the lucky one." They stood there for a moment. Then Nick had to stir the taco meat and Sara had to start the non-meat vegetable protein taco filling.

"Listen, I met up with an old fraternity buddy of mine, Martin Close, while picking up Lisa. He's going to be our new lawyer. Well, the kid's new lawyer. I invited him, his wife, and their three year old twins to join us Friday night. Otherwise it was going to be hard to get time with him and Amy."

"Sounds great. We'll put together more lasagna tonight. Lisa will like having extra playmates," said Sara.

"I thought so. I was also thinking that maybe Lacey or Mike and Katy could stick around awhile and help watch the little ones so we can get business out of the way," said Nick.

Just then Mike came into the kitchen with Katy behind him saying, "Can Katy stay for dinner? We are working on writing a little skit for Spanish and it's taking longer than we thought."

"Of course," says Sara. "Don't forget to call your parents and let them know," says Nick.

"Thanks Mrs. Stokes. I'll go call my parents right now Mr. Stokes."

"It's Nick and Sara, Katy. I need to talk to Mike for a minute and then I'll send him back out to you."

Just then a crash sounded from the family room and Sara ran to check on Lisa.

"Mike, there weren't any lights on upstairs when I drove up to the house. What's the rule about having Katy over especially when we aren't here?" asked while grating cheese for tacos.

"That we have to keep the door open and the lights on. But, Nick, we were in Lacey's room using her tape recorder to listen to ourselves and you can't see her room from the street. I'm fine with the rules; it's cool. It helps keep things under control," said Mike looking down at the floor.

"No problem. I should have just asked where you were. You know that's why we have the rules right? To give you some guidance and help keep things under control. Go find Katy."

"Thanks, Nick," said Mike as he headed out to find Katy.

"Well, I just got through explaining to Lisa that we shouldn't play with the fireplaces tools because they fall over easily. What kind of parenting were you doing?" asked Sara as came back into the kitchen.

"I noticed that there were not lights on in Mike's room when I came home and I was reminding him about the rules. It turns out that he and Katy were using the tape recorder in Lacey's room. I think he appreciates the rules. He mumbled something about it helping keep things under control," said Nick.

"They are both good kids. I think having some rules helps keep them good kids. By the way where is Lacey? She should be home by now." Sara was talking and chopping black olives at the same time.

Just then the phone rang.

Nick picked it up and said "Stokes residence. Yes, she's here. I'll put it on speaker phone."

"Hey Nicky, Hey Sara," said Brass over the speaker phone. "Don't panic, but we've got Lacey down here at the PD. She's fine. She was waiting to take the bus home from the library when some punks started hassling her. One of them grabbed her cell phone and the others started playing keep away with her book bag. Kevin, that kid that is Mike's friend, saw what happened and was taking Lacey back to the library, when he saw a patrol car and flagged them down. He's a real good kid. Almost took the head off of a rookie taking a statement who suggested Lacey might have provoked them. I let Sofia Curtis finished the job. We can't reach Kevin's parents so I'm going to put them both in a car to your place. Is that o.k.? I'm going to make that rookie and some other rookie that pissed Sofia off go look for the bag. Lacey's pretty upset about her notes."

"Thanks, Brass. Bring them both here. We've got Kevin's sister here with Mike. We'll find their parents. Thanks again for looking out for her," said Sara.

Nick just stood there and fumed.

"Nick you need to calm down before Lacey gets home. She doesn't need you in a fury. She's fine. She's safe. We can't wrap her in a bubble. Why don't you defrost some more ground beef? We are feeding an army tonight."

Nick went to make-up more taco filling. Sara found a couple of plastic plates and started filling them with cookies she had made the other day. "I'm going to send these back with whoever drops them off. I'm going to wait out front."

Just as Sara steps outside, a police car pulls up. The officer driving gets out and so do Lacey and Kevin. Sara notices that Kevin is standing protectively close to Lacey. The officer says "Ms. Stokes did Captain Brass get in touch with you?"

"Yes, he did. Nick and I heard the whole story. Thank you for bringing them home. We'll make sure Kevin gets home later. I want you to take these cookies back with you. Night shift never gets any good snacks."

"It was no problem Ms. Stokes. We really appreciate the cookies."

Sara herds Kevin and Lacey in the house. She hugs Lacey and says, "Honey, you're freezing. Go take a shower to warm up. We'll eat dinner when you are done."

Sara reaches over and grabs Kevin's hands. "Well you feel warm enough, but you can shower in Nick's and my room if you want and we can find you some other clothes."

"No thanks, Mrs, I mean Sara. I'm fine."

"Well, thanks so much for looking after Lacey. You've got a good head on your shoulders. Go get something to drink and call your folks again at all their numbers. Katy's here too," said Sara as she directed Kevin into the kitchen.

Kevin walked into the kitchen and looked a little scared of Nick. Nick noticed and said, "Kevin, it's not you I'm mad at. I'm very proud of you and thankful you were there for Lacey. I'm just furious that someone hurt Lacey. Captain Brass says you did just great and were able to help identify the guys."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop them and get her books back," said Kevin while pouring himself a glass of milk.

"You did the smart thing. You focused on Lacey and on reporting the crime. There were what three of them? You can't take on three guys over a book bag and a cell phone. You did the right thing. Now try your parents again."

The phone rang again. Nick answered it "Stokes residence."

"Hi, Nick. It's Karen Anderson are both my children at your house?"

"Yes, they are in fact Kevin is standing right here do you want to talk to him?

"In a minute, but first I need to ask you and Sara a favor, I drove out to Pahrump to see a client and my car broke down and I didn't have any cell service. Everything is fine now, but I'm stuck here until my car is ready tomorrow. John had to fly out of town for an unexpected meeting. Could you and Sara keep the kids over night? I'm sure they would be fine on their own, but I hate to provide that temptation."

"No problem. Listen I need to tell you something. Don't panic if you find messages from LVPD on your phone. Some thugs stole Lacey's backpack and cell phone outside the library. Kevin saw her, got her away from them, and flagged down a police car. We are very proud of him and thankful he was there. Since they couldn't reach you, the officers brought him here."

"Goodness, it's been quite a day. Can I talk to him and then Katy?"

"Sure, Karen. I'll put them on. Give Sara or I a call to let us know you made it back tomorrow. If there is a problem, we'll help you out."

Nick handed the phone to Kevin and went to get Katy.

Finally, they all sat down for dinner. It was a relatively cheerful meal, although Lacey was on the quiet side. Nick mentioned that after dinner he would take Kevin and Katy over to their house to get anything they needed for the next day. Sara promised to write Lacey a note to take to her teachers to explain her missing books and notes, as well as all the note cards for her English term paper that was due the next day. Luckily she had a copy saved on the computer and would just need to make a few edits to be able to turn it in.

Later in the evening, Nick and Sara were trying to figure out where everyone should sleep. They finally decided that they would just go with the obvious since both Mike and Lacey's beds had trundles. They did decide that to speed things up in the morning that Nick would share the "kids" bathroom with the boys and the girls would share the master bathroom with Sara.

At almost eleven, Nick and Sara suggested that it had been a big day and that everyone should go to bed. Figuring that getting everyone on the bus might be a challenge, Sara planned to drive the older kids to high school and then head to court, while Nick would take Lisa to day care and go by the lab to pick up the evidence he needed for court.

* * *

**Chapter 15: Chapter 15**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Summary: Trouble at school for Lacey.**

**Authors Notes: Thanks to my beta reader Audra.**

Just as Nick was about to get in the car to go over to the courthouse, his phone rang. It was Karen Anderson telling him that John had been in a fairly serious car accident while in LA on business. Karen was going to fly down there and then they would drive back to Vegas when he was out of the hospital. Nick assured her that it would be no problem for them to keep Katy and Kevin for a few more days.

Nick got to the courthouse and checked in with the prosecutor, only to find that the defendant had taken a plea bargain. Often Nick was not a fan of plea deals, but since this case involved two drunk guys assaulting each other and their cars in a bar parking lot, he thought sparing everyone a trial was a good deal.

His cell phone rang again as soon as he turned it on as he stepped out side. "Stokes."

"Nick, it's Mike. I can't reach Sara."

"She's in court. What can I do?"

"Well, Lacey's English teacher, Mr. Ricketts, told her she was failing her term paper because she had no note cards to hand in and that would mean no better than a C for the semester. She's pretty freaked out. Katy found her crying in the bathroom like crazy and took her to the nurse. Apparently, the nurse wasn't real nice to her either. I think you should come over here."

"OK, Mike. I can see why you tried Sara first. I've got to take some evidence back to the lab and then I'll be over."

Nick got to the lab and stored his evidence. He found a copy of the police report in his mail box and grabbed it. He called the high school and left a message for Lacey's teacher. He took several deep breaths and prepared to deal with several of his least favorite things, school administrators, crazy teachers, and his daughter when she was in a state. Crying girls were his weakness. His sisters learned that young and used it against him. Sara rarely cried and when she did, there was a big reason and Nick knew all he could do was hold her. Lacey on the other hand was like his sisters and she cried easily. Sara mentioned that she was like that before she was a teenager. What she really meant was before her family life fell apart.

Nick signed in and was directed to the nurse's office. He walked in the door. There was no one at the desk so he waited a minute. He was sure that this was almost the exact same nurse's office as the one he had been patched up in Texas over twenty years ago. The nurse came to the desk and he said "Hi, I'm Nick Stokes. I understand you have my daughter Lacey here."

"Why Mr. Stokes, I told her she was not allowed to call you. We can't have her leaving school just because she had a disagreement with a teacher."

"She didn't call me. My son did. I can't believe that it is school policy to tell her that she can't call one of her parents. Did you ask her what happened?"

"Well, she started to say something about a grade and a teacher and I don't get involved in that."

"I understand that, but Lacey was assaulted last night, her books were stolen, including the note cards for her English assignment, which is what I believe started this. She's not just upset about a bad grade. Now, I would like to see her please."

The nurse looked cowed and pointed Nick to the room Lacey was in. She was hiccupping and crying on a little cot. Nick knelt down next to her. "Nick, they wouldn't let me call you. How did you know to come?" Lacey hiccupped several times during this.

"Mike called me. Now can you tell me what happened?"

"I tried to tell Mr. Ricketts that my note cards had been stolen, but he wouldn't let me. He just looked at me and said 'When I said, no excuses, I meant no excuses.' Then told me so everyone could hear that I was getting an F on my term paper which meant no better than a C for the semester."

"O.K. baby. You need to relax so you can stop hiccupping. I'm going to see if I can talk to your teacher and the principal. I'll be back to get you soon."

As Nick walked past the nurse, he said, "Please let Lacey stay here a little longer. I want to make an appointment with the teacher and the principal and then I will be back for her."

Nick walked into the main office and said "I'm Nick Stokes, Lacey White's foster father. I'd like to make an appointment to talk to the principal as soon as possible."

A gray haired women stepped toward him and said "I'm Sandy Allen. I have some time now if you'd like. Lacey is such a delightful girl."

"Thank you Ms. Allen. I appreciate you seeing me like this" said Nick as he followed her into her office.

"I'm very disturbed by a couple of things. I do plan to talk to her classroom teacher as soon as I can, but honestly the reaction of the school nurse is even more distressing to me."

"What happened Mr. Stokes?"

"Yesterday leaving the public library, Lacey had her book bag stolen and was threatened by some thugs. She wasn't hurt, but she was scared and all her books and notes were gone. Apparently, when she tried to tell Mr. Ricketts that she didn't have her note cards to turn in, he told her he wasn't accepting any excuses and from what I understand told her in a voice everyone could hear that no note cards meant an F on the assignment and no better than a C in the class. This upset Lacey greatly. I know my son's girlfriend found Lacey crying in the bathroom rather hysterically and took her to the nurse. I then got a call from my son telling me that Lacey was in the nurse's office, but not allowed to call me. I came down to the nurse's office where I was told by the nurse that she had told Lacey she couldn't call me because she couldn't leave school over a disagreement with a teacher and wouldn't listen any more. Lacey had been crying so much she had the hiccups when I got there. I left her in the nurse's office and came here. I can't believe that she was told she couldn't call my wife or I. And I can't believe no one would listen to her when she was near hysterical."

"Mr. Stokes, I'm so sorry about all of this. I believe Mr. Ricketts has his planning period now. Let me ask someone to go get him and we can discuss this." She picked up the phone and asked that Mr. Ricketts be found.

"I'm very sorry Lacey was told she couldn't call you or your wife. That was wrong. Now if this had been a simple disagreement about a grade the nurse might have tried to talk to you about signing her out of school, but of course she should have been allowed to call you. I'm also quite distressed that she did not take the time to listen to Lacey. Lacey's never been a problem child."

"Thank you Ms. Allen. I appreciate hearing that."

"Come in Mr. Ricketts. This is Nick Stokes. Lacey White's foster father. I believe there was an incident in your class this morning. We would like to discuss it."

"Well, I don't see what there is to discuss. I was very clear that students who didn't hand in note cards would not pass the assignment," said Mr. Ricketts.

"Did you listen to what she had to say?" asked Ms. Allen.

"No, I was clear that no excuses were being accepted."

"Mr. Ricketts," said Nick. "Lacey was mugged and had her book bag stolen last night. The note cards were in it. I have a copy of the police report for you if you'd like."

"Yes, I understand you work with the police. How do I know you aren't covering for her carelessness?"

"Mr. Ricketts!" said Ms. Allen.

"Well, you see that in itself would be a crime. Do you really think that several police officers and I would risk our professional reputations over note cards for my daughter's English Class? You know she had note cards. She told us that you checked them."

"Mr. Stokes, I'm very sorry about this. I can assure that Lacey will not get a failing grade for this project assuming that her paper is of the usual quality of her work. I will work this out with Mr. Ricketts. You can take Lacey home for the rest of today. If you and your wife, if she is available, could meet me here with Lacey at the 7:45 bell, we will straighten this out," said Ms. Allen in a very dower voice.

"Thank you Ms. Allen. We'll see you then," said Nick as he was leaving.

Nick picked Lacey up at the nurse's office, assured her that Ms. Allen said she would not fail the assignment and that they would meet about it in the morning. He took Lacey back to the crime lab with him wishing that Sara was not in court.

When they got to the lab, he left Lacey in the break room with Greg and went off to make a phone call.

"DCFS, Ms. Sanders speaking."

"Amy, it's Nick could you possibly put on whatever hat you would need to put on to come and have lunch with my slightly hysterical daughter?"

"Well, sure, but what's up. Why isn't she in school?"

Nick proceeded to tell Amy the whole story.

"Well, this sounds like official social worker business. You and Sara get gold stars for checking in with me. I'll come get her."

"Good. She's in the lounge with Greg. Judy should let you come on back. You do realize that you are the first social worker who even takes our calls when there has been an incident with one of the kids?"

"Yeah, well, that's why some of them don't work here anymore."

Nick went back into the lounge and said "Lacey, Amy's going to come take you to lunch. I thought she would be easier to talk to then me."

Lacey came over to Nick and hugged him saying, "thanks Dad. You are pretty great even if you aren't that good at the talking thing."

"No problem, pumpkin. I'm going to go change and get to work."

"I'll wait here with her until Amy comes so I can say hi to my wife," said Greg.

"Thanks Greggo."

* * *

That night, Sara climbed in bed next to Nick, and curled up against him. "You did a good job today. I know you felt out of your league, but you did good. I think calling Amy was a stroke of brilliance. She's trained for this type of stuff."

 

"Thanks, Sar'.

Then after kissing and murmured "I love you's." They fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning Nick and Sara loaded all the kids into the minivan and went to the high school to meet with the principal. They had to take Lisa with them since they couldn't drop her at day care first.

 

When, Nick, Sara, Lacey and Lisa got to the office, Ms. Allen was waiting for them and showed them into her office.

"Thank you for coming to meet with me this morning Mr. and Mrs. Stokes."

"We appreciate it. I'm sorry that we had to bring our youngest, Lisa, with us, but we couldn't drop her at day care before this," said Sara.

"Not a problem. I understand. Now, I wanted to let you know that I spoke to the nurse and in no circumstances will a student ever be told that he or she cannot call his parents. I've also made arrangements for Lacey's teachers to issue her new textbooks. I think it would be best if we transferred Lacey to Ms. Carpenter's English class for the rest of the year. She has all your grades for work done earlier this semester and she will grade your term paper without regard to notes cards. I believe that is the best solution."

"Thank you, Ms. Allen," said Lacey.

"You are welcome. Why don't you head off to home room now? Your parents and I will wrap this up."

With that Lacey headed off to class.

"Thanks, Ms. Allen. What else do we need to cover?" asked Nick.

"Well, I prefer not to directly criticize teachers in front of students. Mr. Ricketts feels that in many cases we accept excuses from students that are not always justified. He is probably right in some cases, but certainly not in this case. Lacey is obviously a sensitive girl and even if I required Mr. Ricketts to excuse the lack of note cards, I think that they would still clash for the rest of the year. I think that is unfair to Lacey, so I'm switching her to another English section. Is that ok?"

"Yes, it is," says Nick.

"We appreciate how in tune to Lacey you are. Thanks so much," said Sara.

"While I have you here, I wanted to ask if I could have you or someone else from the crime lab come speak on career day? We are trying to get a wider cross-section of careers."

"Of course," said Nick and Sara in stereo.

After Nick and Sara left school and were getting back into the car, Nick said, "Is it just me or did you have to remind yourself that you are an adult?"

"Absolutely, get me in that building and I'm a teenager again," replied Sara.

"When do I go to big school like Mike and Lacey?" asked Lisa.

"In about twelve years, peanut," said Nick.

* * *

**Chapter 16: Chapter 16**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Chapter 16**

**Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!**

The Sanders and the Closes were invited to dinner that night, and Nick and Sara had convinced the kids to hang around and help out. In exchange, Nick or Sara would drop them at a 9:00 pm movie.

The adults enjoyed a nice dinner of spinach lasagna, salad, and garlic bread in the dining room while Lars was sleeping in his carrier on the buffet table. The Close twins, Maren and Aiden, were in the kitchen with the other kids eating dinner together. Sara had made plain lasagna for the little kids. Lacey was helping Lisa; Katy was helping Maren, while Mike and Kevin helped out Aiden. The twins and Lisa hit it off and were entertaining the teenagers with their conversation.

After dinner, while the teenagers entertained the little kids in the family room or maybe the other way around, the adults were talking over coffee. Martin spoke up, "Greg and Lucy, I hate to do this to you, but I need to ask some questions before Lisa's hearing."

"No problem," Greg said.

"That's fine. Should we join the kids?" Lucy asked.

"No, you can stay," Sara told them.

Martin started by asking Nick and Sara about how they came to be Lisa's foster parents. Sara began the story, "Well, we already had Lacey, but we had told the county, jeez, I can't remember the social worker's name, that we wanted a baby that would probably be eligible for adoption. We got a call telling us that a woman who was being tried for manslaughter had gone into labor and that she would be able to see and the name the baby, but he or she would be taken from her immediately."

Nick jumped in saying, "We never did look into the details of the crime, but we know she was sentenced to fifteen to twenty years in prison. Anyway, we went to the hospital that night. Sara got to feed her. I changed her. We took her home when she was a day old. We know that we would have to take her to see her mother, but her mother refused visitation."

Sara added, "We've sent pictures and letters over the years. I wanted that woman to know her if Lisa ended up back in her custody. I also wanted there to be no question that she hadn't been given the opportunity to be involved."

"So, ever since Lisa was born, her biological mother never expressed interest in seeing her, but is contesting termination even though Lisa will be a teenager or an adult when she gets out. Well, her latest stunt is this change of venue request. What do you know about that?" Martin asked. (you need the tag line here since the speaker hasn't said anything in two paragraphs. W e need to know who's talking here.)

This time Amy jumped in, "I've spoken with Ms. Stone. She turned down visitation and the letters that Sara and Nick have sent have never been opened. She says it's too hard and she doesn't want her daughter to see her in prison. I think her lawyer, who wants to be legal aide hot shot, put her up to the change of venue idea. The argument is that Nick and Sara are so well known to judges here that there is not one in Clark County that can be fair. According to the Adoption and Safe Families Act, since Lisa has spent more than fifteen of the last twenty four months in foster care she should be up for adoption. The fact that her mother has not demonstrated any interest is just icing on the cake."

"Hey, guys it's almost 8:30. If the kids are going to go to a movie they need to leave about now. Why don't I drive them and you finish talking?" Greg offered.

"Thanks Greggo," Nick said as he tossed him the minivan keys, and Lucy went to look after the little kids with the teenagers leaving the house.

"I think I get the picture," Martin told them. "This should be a pretty easy case. I hate to ask because I know it's unthinkable to you, but you have to be prepared. Her lawyer might ask why you want Lisa if you are pregnant now."

Nick took several deep breaths trying to remain calm while Sara very calmly said, "Because she's my child, just as much as this baby is. Nick and I walked the floor with her to get her to sleep when she was teething. Nick and I dealt with the baby puke and the dirty diapers. We saw her first smile and her first steps. We love her and she is part of our family."

"That's perfect Sara! Now, Nick try not to explode, okay?" Martin requested. "Now let's talk about the older kids."

Nick and Sara filled Martin in on Lacey and Mike. They explained how they had come to Nick and Sara. They talked about Lacey's great-aunts and Mike's hesitancy about being adopted. Finally, Martin said, "Well, I think that's everything I need. I can't imagine that there will be any problems. Hopefully, we can do the adoptions at one hearing sometime."

* * *

Greg came back from dropping the kids off at the movies and the adults all decided to join Lucy in the family room to keep an eye on the toddlers. The three of them were potential trouble magnets. As Greg settled in holding a now awake Lars in his arms he asked, "I know Kevin stuck up for Lacey the other day, but is there something going on between them? They seem very close."

 

"What do you mean, close?" Nick asked.

"Just very interested in each other, tuning out Mike and Katy, who are in their own little world anyway, and maybe standing a little close. Just little things," Greg responded.

Sara smiled and said, "I can see that. We'll have to watch out. They could be cute together."

"I'll see what nonconfidential intel I can gather and pass it on. I think they could be good together too," Amy said.

Nick looked worried, but Greg laughed and said, "Dude, you knew she was going to start to date sometime. Besides, Kevin is her brother's best friend and a good kid. What could be safer than her brother's best friend?"

Sara decided that a subject change was in order, so she turned to Martin and said, "Tell us some stories about Nick back in his frat days. I learned from his niece that he dated several cheerleaders. Lucy, I bet you can get Nick to tell us a good story about Martin too."

So Martin and Nick began telling stories about their college days. In turn, they coaxed stories out of the others. (it's really hard in stories with groups of this size even with all the names. Sometimes that can really take away from what's going on in the story) Everyone was having fun, until they realized that things had gotten very quiet. Lisa, Maren, and Aiden had disappeared. The parents went looking for them. They found Lisa and Maren asleep in Lisa's bed and Aiden asleep on the floor. Realizing that it was getting late, Martin and Lucy scooped up their sleeping children to head home. Greg and Amy also decided they needed to go. Nick went to pick the teenagers up at the movie while Sara tried to wake Lisa enough to change her clothes and get her to go potty and brush her teeth. Sara didn't have much luck, but figured things would be fine.

* * *

Sara was fast asleep, when a tearful little voice calling her invaded her sleep. Sara shook herself awake, and saw a tearful Lisa standing at the side of the bed. "What's wrong honey?"

 

"Mommy, I'm sorry. I wet the bed," Lisa said while sniffling.

"Oh, Lisa, that's okay, accidents happen. Let's get you into some clean clothes and get clean sheets," Sara said as she hugged her daughter and handed her a tissue to wipe her nose. Nick let out a soft snore clearly oblivious to what was going on around him.

"Daddy sounds funny," Lisa whispered.

"Yes, he does," Sara said with a smile.

She took Lisa upstairs, grabbed some clean pajamas out her drawer, and then took her into the bathroom to clean her up. Lisa took off her wet pajamas and went to the potty without Sara having to suggest it. Sara ran a wash cloth under hot water and used it to give Lisa sponge bath. She dried her off and helped her into clean pajamas. Lisa apologized again and Sara told her that accidents happened. This was the first time Lisa had wet her bed since graduating from pull-ups months ago. Sara knew that it was because she fell asleep without going to the bathroom and wasn't quite mature enough to wake herself up before she had an accident.

Lisa sat at the little table and chairs in her room, while Sara stripped her bed. She was thankful that she had left the waterproof pad on the mattress pad and under the sheets. Within minutes, Sara had grabbed new sheets and an old crib pad and had the bed made up again. She tucked Lisa in and kissed her good night.

When Sara cut through the family room, on her way to put the dirty sheets and pajamas in the wash, she was surprised to she that the teens had not gone to bed. They had fallen asleep watching a movie. The DVD had gone back to the beginning and was looping through the initial screen waiting for someone to press play.

After having put the sheets in the wash, Sara went and turned off the DVD player. None of the teens stirred. Mike and Katy were snuggled in the big chair together completely asleep. Kevin and Lacey were sprawled out next to each other, with feet on the ottoman. Their hands sort of laced together like they had fallen asleep holding hands. Sara smiled and realized that there was the beginning of something between those two. She noticed the digital camera on a bookshelf and grabbed it taking two quick pictures. No one stirred.

Sara went over to Mike and Katy. She put her hand on Mike's shoulder to shake him a little and said, "Mike, you need to wake up."

Mike was startled and jumped saying, "Wha?"

That woke Katy who just stared at Sara horrified.

"Guys, you fell asleep watching the movie. I think should you should go get into your own beds now," Sara said.

A bright red Katy said, "Uh, Sara, we weren't doing anything. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I know. I just think all of you would be better off in bed."

By this time the noise had woken Kevin and Lacey, who Sara noticed jumped a bit and pulled their hands close to their own bodies.

"Anyone need anything before going to bed?" Sara asked. They all responded that they were fine. "Well, then good night."

When Sara finally slipped back into bed, Nick said, "Hey, I woke up and you weren't here. I was just about to go look for you."

"I was up being Mom, and you slept through the whole thing. Lisa had an accident, which wasn't a shock since; I couldn't get her to wake up and go earlier. Then I found the teens asleep in the family room." She felt Nick start to tense up under her. "Don't worry Nick, it was G rated. I think they really just fell asleep. Katy and Mike were in the big chair together. I think there is something between Kevin and Lacey though. They were sitting closer together than unusual, although not that close, with their fingers intertwined. I woke them and sent them upstairs to bed."

"Sorry, I didn't wake up. You could have woken me."

"No problem, Nicky. We didn't both need to be up. Have you noticed that when Lisa has a scary dream or something she wakes you up, but if she's not feeling good or something she comes to me?"

"No, I guess I never did," Nick said.

"She does. Even though you do as much of the everyday things for her as I do, I think it's kind of cute that she comes to her mommy for comfort and her daddy for safety. I hope that we can make sure that she thinks between the two of us we can fix almost anything for as long as possible."

"Me too Sar'," Nick agreed, as he pulled her close to him. He knew that when she said things like that she was thinking about her childhood. He wished that somehow he could give her the childhood she wanted for their kids. Nick, never sure of who deserved his anger him more…Sara's mother for letting her daughter grow up in the shadow of abuse and the act that left Sara with no parents or Sara's father for the abusive household he created. However, Nick knew he couldn't do anything about that now, and so he just held Sara tight.

* * *

**Chapter 17: Chapter 17**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 17

Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!

Saturday night the boys' basketball team had a home game. So, Nick took Mike and Kevin early and watched them practice before the game. While football had been Nick's game when he was young, he did appreciate basketball. In the past, Nick, Warrick, and Greg would sometimes find a fourth guy and play two-on-two. Now on the rare occasions they played, they brought Mike along. At first they took it easy on Mike, but a growth spurt and practicing with the varsity team, put Mike on their level, sometimes a little above it.

Nick enjoyed watching his son practice. Long before Nick met Sara, when he thought about being a dad, he thought about sports with his son or even his daughter. He never wanted to a pushy sports parent, as far as he was concerned high school sports were for fun, exercise, and learning skills like teamwork and responsibility. Winning is always better than losing, but that was not the end all be all. He liked seeing what the coach was telling Mike, because while he never suggested that Mike work on anything specific, he liked knowing what was up if Mike asked for help. Nick also liked getting to know some of the other fathers. Sometimes it was nice to talk to someone else who was trying to parent a teenage boy. Not that they talked much about it, which sometimes he wished they did. There were some things he still wasn't sure about, like how to you teach your son to be a gentleman, but not a sexist.

Much to Nick's dismay, Lacey had no interest in sports whatsoever. She would swim or hit the elliptical machine for exercise and kept her self in good shape, but she no interest in competitive sports. Sometimes she would run with Sara. She didn't even have much interest in noncompetitive sports like playing catch with her dad in the back yard.

Nick had hope for Lisa. She had toddler sports paraphernalia including her own little Fischer Price basketball hoop. She loved her dad or her brother holding her up high to throw the ball in the real hoop. Nick had taught her to throw and kick a ball. He wanted her to try out t-ball and soccer as soon as she was old enough. If she didn't like it, that was fine. Sara was reasonably supportive of this. Nick decided that was one perk of being married to a woman who was determined to avoid sexism in child rearing. Sara did have a very strict "no guns" and "no Barbies" policy. (Which some how did not include Super Soakers, that Nick and Sara had owned pre-children)

With five older sisters, Nick had witnessed, what he later realized was body image angst, but he wasn't sure that a Barbie ban would help this. On the other hand he wasn't sure what was especially positive about Barbie. The "no guns" issue was a little trickier. Nick like almost every little boy growing up in Texas in the 1970s had toy guns and spent lots of time playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, as well as army. He didn't think this had made him violent. However, you couldn't do his job and not know how important it was for kids to know guns aren't toys. Lisa didn't seem to care for guns. She never asked for one or built one out of blocks or anything like that. Nick was fairly certain that if the new baby was a boy, he would be building guns no matter what his mother thought about toy guns. Nick figured that since Sara grew up fearing violence in her home that he would let her set the rules on what pretend violence was allowed in theirs.

Just before the game was about to begin, Sara arrived with Katy, Lacey, and Lisa in tow. Lacey and Katy went off to join friends, but Sara and Lisa joined Nick.

Lisa scrambled into her dad's lap and said, "Mike play basetball." Basketball was still a little difficult for Lisa to say.

"Yes, Darlin', Mike is playing basketball," Nick said.

"So how did they seem in practice?" Sara asked.

"Mike looked good and so did Kevin. I think the team has a good shot tonight. I was thinking that given the crowd we have to supervise tonight that maybe we should suggest they invite their friends over. We'll order pizza and pick up some ice cream and stuff. That way all four of them don't feel like they have to go to the same place or Katy won't feel like she has to hang out with Lacey," Nick suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea. I was wondering how we were going to keep track of all of them. Although, I think Katy and Lacey are getting to be better friends. I see them sitting together with, what I think is a mixture of friends, since I don't recognize a bunch of the girls," said Sara.

They turned their attention to the game. They watched what was looking like a solid contest. Just as the home team scored, Warrick came up and joined them saying, "Hey, can I join you guys?"

"Hey, 'Rick. Good to see you. Why aren't you off with Catherine?" Nick asked.

"Hi Unca Wahrick," Lisa said, while climbing off of Nick's lap and into Warrick.

"Hi Warrick," Sara greeted.

"How are they playing?" Warrick asked ignoring Nick's jibe about Catherine. Not only did he know Mike, but Warrick knew several of the other boys on the team from a community center he volunteered at.

Since none of the adults answered immediately, Lisa chimed in saying, "Mike's team winning now." The adults laughed and watched the game.

Nick and Sara invited Warrick to come back to the house and join the teenage mad house. Warrick thought about it for a moment, but then he offered to go pickup ice cream and chips and then join them. When Mike's team won the game, Warrick took off in search of junk food and Nick and Sara went to collect the four that were theirs for the weekend as well as some others.

Awhile later, there were teenagers all over the kitchen, living room, and family room of the Stokes house. Sara thought they had ordered a ridiculous amount of food, but the pizza was going fast and it didn't seem like there would be any left. She guessed that Nick and Warrick were in a better place to estimate what a number of teenage boys, many of whom had just finished playing basketball would want to eat. Somehow their place had become the official after party for the team, so the coaches and a handful of other parents were there. The grown-ups had staked out the dinning room, although they made frequent trips around the rest of the place to check on things.

Nick had also done some pre-party picking up. Nick and Sara trusted their kids, but Nick having been a more social teenager than Sara was less inclined to leave temptation available. When they decided to be foster parents to teenagers, Nick thought to get a liquor cabinet that locked, although there was not that much liquor in their house. They didn't lock it unless they were going to be away for awhile. In his youth, Nick had attended more than one party where the beverages served had been swiped from the parent's liquor cabinet. Before this party got started, Nick took the beer that was generally in their fridge and the six-pack in the garage and locked it up in the liquor cabinet. He figured that there was no sense in leaving temptation in sight.

Somehow during the course of the evening Nick and Warrick got sucked into a video game tournament with some of the kids, mostly boys. Sara looked at Nick and a boy she didn't know go head to head on some game. Apparently, at heart her husband was little more than an overgrown teenager.

Sara rejoined some of the other adults in the dinning room. One of the other mothers said, "Sara, Mike mentioned you are pregnant. When are you due?"

"Late May…early June," Sara answered.

"My goodness you are hardly showing at all. You must be thrilled. Don't let them scare you off by calling you elderly. I was in my late thirties when I was pregnant with Nathan and I cringed every time my doctor said it. Not that I saw a patient under 30 in his practice," Julia said.

"We are thrilled. And I was a little surprised by being called elderly. I know I'm older than average, but its not like I'm record setting. Nick's mom was my age when he was born. Of course he was the youngest of seven. The year Nick's brother, the oldest was a senior in high school, Nick was in kindergarten. Mike and Lacey will be in college by the time this one starts school, this one and Lisa will be a good age difference. Nick and I are still deciding if we want to know the babies sex. Any thoughts?" Sara asked.

Most of the mothers there had chosen to find out. A couple of them warned Sara not to be too sure unless the results were the amnio. Apparently, several people got boys who were expecting girls and vice versa. However, sonograms had come a long way since these teenagers were born. One practical piece of advice Sara received was that knowing the gender would help the baby be more concrete to Lisa. One mother commented that she wasn't sure who thought it was a good idea to ask a two or three year old if they wanted a brother or a sister since it didn't matter what they wanted and they could be counted on to call the opposite gender "yucky".

Around 11:30 parents started coming to get kids who were too young to drive and by midnight everyone was gone. Warrick was helping Nick and Sara clean up. When he went to take a bunch of soda cans out back to the recycling, he realized that Lacey and Kevin were sitting out on the swing set. He resisted the urge to go say something to them. However when he came inside he asked, "How long has this Lacey/Kevin thing been going on? They are sitting out on the swing set talking and flirting."

"What? I'll go call them in," said Nick.

"Nick, chill a minute. They're out in our backyard sitting on the swing set. Given the size of the swing set they aren't even sitting together. Let's give them a few more minutes. Even teenagers are entitled to some privacy. Warrick, we think this started a few days ago after he protected her from those punks who stole her bag. I haven't had a chance to talk to her alone yet. By the way where is the other teenage couple that belongs to us?" asked Sara.

"I don't know," said Nick.

"Well, why don't you find them and make sure they are still vertical with most of their clothes on and then call Lacey and Kevin in. We can finish cleaning up and then make sure everyone ends up in the right beds for the night," Sara said.

After Nick left, Warrick said, "This is hard for Nick, isn't it? Not that I blame him, no one whoever was a fifteen year old guy wants one of them near his baby girl."

"I just don't get that about you guys. Mike is a fifteen year old boy and Nick doesn't worry too much about him and Katy, who is by the way someone else's baby girl. Besides the thoughts of teenage girls aren't all innocent and pure," Sara said.

"Sara, it's just a guy thing. You can't understand completely. I will say that Nick worries less about Mike and Katy because he's sure that he stressed to Mike the need to be a gentleman."

"You're right. I really don't understand. Listen, I know Nick ribs you about Catherine, but you know we would be thrilled if something worked out for you two. You deserve to be happy. Also, we are planning on doing a Christmas dinner. I already invited Greg and Amy, I plan to invite Catherine and Lindsey and we'd love to have you come. Think about it and get back to me."

"Thanks, Sara. I should head out now. Tell Nick, I said goodnight."

"I will. Goodnight Warrick."

Nick came back with all four teens. They finished the clean-up and Sara sent Nick up to check on Lisa, Kevin, and Mike up to get ready for bed. Katy, on the other hand, was off to use the master bathroom to get ready, since the girl's stuff was still there from Friday morning getting ready for school.

Sara held Lacey back a few minutes. "So Lacey, based on what I've seen and what I've heard, I'm beginning to think there is something between you and Kevin. Am I right?"

"I think so. We've been getting kind of close. I like talking to him. He's mentioned that when things settle down we should go out on a date. He held my hand during the movie. He hasn't tried to kiss me yet though. I thought…I hoped…he might tonight, but then Warrick came out back to do the recycling. I've never kissed a boy before," said Lacey shyly.

"That's nice, Sweetie. Kevin's a really nice boy. Taking things slow is good. Having a nice memory of your first kiss is good. If this goes anywhere we need to talk about the rules for dating, okay?" Sara said.

"Sure Sara. You know if I can't have my mom around I'm glad I have you. You're a good mom."

Sara hugged Lacey and sent her off to get ready for bed.

* * *

Nick and Sara were settling into bed, "I always wanted to be one of the parents who did this kind of thing. It was fun. We have great kids and they have great friends," Nick said.

 

"I know. Where did you find Mike and Katy?"

"Outside on the patio, and everyone was reasonably vertical and had all their clothes on, by the way."

"Well, I found out from Lacey that there is the beginning of something between her and Kevin. He's asked her out on a date when things settle down. Apparently, he held her hand during the movie, and she thought he might try to kiss her tonight, but Warrick came out and ruined the moment. You know if this happens it will be her first kiss. I told her Kevin is a nice boy and if this goes some where we need to review the rules for dating."

"I know Kevin is a nice kid and there is very little that could be safer than her brother's best friend, but I was a fifteen year old boy and I don't want anyone thinking that way about my little girl," Nick said.

"Nick, Katy's someone's little girl, too. You seem to believe that Mike treats her ok, although I'm sure his thoughts about her are not always pure and innocent. Let it go, okay? Besides, I hate to break this to you, but teenage girls have thoughts that aren't all pure and innocent. Be happy for her and no double standard. It's just not right."

"I know Sara, but the stuff we see. The teenage boys we see mostly were driving too fast, drinking too much, or doing other stupid adolescent boy things. I'm sure I'll worry about Mike driving more. The teenager girls we see so often got involved with the wrong boys."

"I know, believe me I know. We know Kevin. We know his parents. She's got a good head on her shoulders. We know where they are and what they are up to most of the time. You need to relax."

"Sar, I promise I'll try."

"Okay. Now on a completely different subject, I think we should find out the sex of the baby."

"Okay...why?"

"Well, one of the other mothers pointed out to me that it will make things more concrete for Lisa. People won't ask her if she wants a baby brother or a baby sister. She'll know and she won't think she gets to choose or announce that a brother would be yucky."

"Good thinking. That makes sense. Let's do it. Do you want to know from the ultrasound or wait for the amnio results?

"Let's find out from the ultrasound and confirm from the amnio. That way we can be sure before we tell Lisa. I'm so excited about this!"

"Me too, Baby, me too," answered a sleepy Nick.

* * *

**Chapter 18: Chapter 18**

* * *

Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing

Rating: Teen

Chapter 18

Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!

Sunday, the Stokes decided to put the herd of teenagers they had to work getting ready for Christmas. The men tackled the outside lights. The women and Lisa worked on Christmas cookies. The plan was that later that evening everyone would help decorate the tree. This was going to be the last night everyone was together since the Andersons were due to arrive in Vegas sometime on Monday.

While, they were working outside, Nick could tell that Kevin wanted to talk to him. He figured he knew what it was about, but thought he'd wait until Kevin started. At some point Mike, went into the garage to look for another extension cord. A very nervous Kevin said, "Nick, I'd really like to take Lacey out on a date sometime if it would be okay with you and Sara. She's said she'd like to go and stuff. I promise you won't have anything to worry about. She's a special girl and I'd like to spend more time with her."

"I heard there was something brewing between you two. You can take Lacey out on a date sometime if she wants to go. She's my daughter so I'll always find something to worry about, but I'm sure you will behave the like gentleman your parents raised you to be. Now, let's see if we can't get these lights up, so we can go get some cookies."

The lights got put up, the tree got decorated, and dozens and dozens of different kinds of Christmas cookies got baked. Sara had suggested that the teens start getting ready for bed around ten because it did take a bit of time with all of them. Plus, Mike and Katy needed to pack their stuff up. Nick backed her up with one of those patented dad glares that said, "Don't argue with your mother". They didn't protest much, probably because they all needed the sleep.

* * *

As Sara slipped in bed and cuddled up beside Nick, he said, "Kevin asked me about taking Lacey out on a date. I told him he could. I didn't even lecture him or anything."

 

Sara snorted and said, "Well, that's good. Lacey and Katy have been making plans to hang out more. I think we are going to have to have a talk with Karen and John about how we stay on top of these kids. I do trust them all, but with two sets of siblings it seems like it might be easy to evade us with half-truths and mutual defense pacts. Although I suppose we should wait and see if this thing with Lacey and Kevin goes anywhere."

"That sounds like a good idea. Remember when our pillow talk involved sex? It was about what we planned to do to each other and not how to make sure our kids don't have any?"

"God, I'm sorry Nicky, I'm just so tired and I can't relax with this many kids in the house. I'm sorry."

"Hey, none of that, I was just making a bad joke," Nick said as he planted a very chaste kiss on Sara's lips. "As much as I loved the time we had together just the two of us because it was really, really special…this is what I've always wanted. A wife, I love more than anything, and a house full of our kids and their friends. I know sometimes that wasn't what I projected before we got together, but this is it. Watching my son play ball, teaching my daughter to ride, helping with homework, and even sitting through tea parties is it. I wanted to be able to commit to it with all I had. Now, turn over and let me rub you back, it will help you relax and fall asleep."

* * *

Sara Sidle Stokes was fidgeting outside the courtroom. "Are you sure I look okay, Nick? I can't believe it didn't occur to me that none of my suit jackets would close. I don't feel professional."

 

Her husband took a deep breath and chose his words carefully. "Sara, you look great. Remember, you aren't here to be Sara Sidle-Stokes, kick-ass CSI. You are here to be Sara Stokes kick ass mother and to testify about our daughter's contact with her biological mother. I'm not so sure it hurts to be kinda obviously pregnant. We'll make sure you have a court suit that fits before you have to be Sara Sidle-Stokes, kick ass CSI."

"I think there is something kind of sexist about that Nick, but I'm not sure exactly what. Plus, it was real sweet and you are right. I'm not up against stereotypes about women in science. I need to go to the bathroom again. I'll be right back."

Just then Amy appeared and greeted Sara as she passed. "Hi Nick, what's up? Sara seems a little flustered. The judge is not going to change venue and may even terminate today. You have nothing to worry about."

"None of Sara's suit jackets fit her this morning and she doesn't feel court ready. I pointed out to her that in this case, maybe being obviously pregnant was not such a bad thing and that we'll get her a suit that fits before she had to be in court again as a CSI."

"Ah, I understand. You are probably right, but I'd feel naked in court without a jacket too. Maybe Sara and I can go shopping together soon."

Soon they were all called into the court room. The judge asked about the petition to change venue, and summarily denied it noting that it was almost never, ever done in family court. The public defender objected and reminded the judge that Nick and the county's counsel were fraternity brothers, and the social worker involved was a personal friend of Nick and Sara's.

Judge Watson moved on to questions, "Mr. Close, can you please explain the situation?"

"Yes, your Honor. You see Ma'am, it is true that Mr. Stokes and I were in the same fraternity in college and good friends, but we had lost touch. I'm new in town and I didn't even know Nick lived her until I was handed this case a little over a week ago. It has been something like ten or fifteen years since we had seen each other."

"So let me understand this, when you both saw each other regularly you were in your twenties and living in a fraternity house. I assume that unless your house was unlike any I was ever in when I was in college or the ones my sons live in that no sane person would have given you custody of anything living."

"As for you, Ms. Sanders, how did you come to know the Stokes? Were you the original caseworker? How did you become the caseworker?"

"Your Honor, I got to know the Stokes before they were married. My husband works with them, I meet them while we were dating when I was in graduate school. I was not the original caseworker. When they were evaluated to be foster parents and Lisa and their older daughter, Lacey, were placed with them, I was working at a private battered women's shelter. I became the caseworker last week, when they called in to report that their older daughter, Lacey, had been involved in an incident where her cell phone and book bag were stolen. I discovered that the caseworker of record had left and none of their cases had been reassigned. Recently, the cases of their children have been given to new hires because it is fairly easy."

"Lisa is in the county day care center in our building, so she is easy to check-up on. The older children are excellent students. They never get in to any trouble. Nick and Sara are diligent about calling in with anything that could be considered an issue with the children. We get copies of well child check-ups, teeth cleanings, report cards, and everything. Each child has had one emergency room visit each. Lisa needed two stitches after a fall on the playground at day care, ironically enough while her case worker was down checking on her. Lacey got hit in the face with a softball in gym class. My husband happened to take that message at work and called DFCS because Nick was at a continuing education seminar out of town and Sara was in court. He found Sara and she asked Judge Menendez for a continuance so she could be with Lacey. Nothing was broken, but Lacey did have two spectacular black eyes. Mike ended up with an injured knee from basketball. Nick and Sara paid for an MRI that Medicaid did not consider necessary to be sure he could quickly and safely return to basketball. They also petitioned to have the kids added to their family plan at work, which they paid the extra cost for, because they thought it gave better care. The monthly support payments go into a trust fund for each child's education, with DCFS as primary trustee so that no matter what happens that money is there of the children's future."

She continued, "I became the case worker because I discovered that no one had told them about this hearing. The older two children want to move forward to adoption. I thought the cases needed someone with experience to make sure it got handled, and I had the fewest cases of any staff at that moment. The department had already made all the decisions before I got involved. I'm just carrying them out."

"Thank you Ms. Sanders. I believe that nothing here creates any systematic bias against Ms. Stone, so we are going to continue with the termination hearing. Mr. Marks, make your case."

"Your Honor, we believe that the state is moving to take away my client's parental rights simply because she is incarcerated, which does in itself not make her an unfit mother. The state simply feels that Nick and Sara Stokes would be better parents. They may well be, but that is not the issue, the issue is whether or not Ms. Stone is unfit, which they have not proven."

"Thank you. Mr. Close, your turn."

"Your Honor, as you know this hearing is not about whether Mr. and Mrs. Stokes would be better parents for Lisa. It is about, as Mr. Marks said, whether Ms. Stone is a fit parent for Lisa. Ms. Stone is serving a twenty year manslaughter sentence. That alone does not make her an unfit mother, but she has made no effort to stay in contact with her child. She has turned down offers of visitation and refused to read letters that Lisa's foster parents send her telling her about Lisa. Lisa does not know this woman who at the very least will be in jail until she is a teenager. Additionally, to be in compliance with federal law any child who spends the past fifteen of twenty-four months in foster care should be freed for adoption unless there is an extraordinary circumstance."

"Mr. Marks, is what Ms Sanders said about Ms. Stone's contact with Lisa true?" the Judge asked.

"Yes, your Honor. My client does not want her daughter's image of her to be in jail."

"Ms. Stone, you may not want your child to see you in jail, but your child needs to be loved and cared for. She needs to know that she belongs to a family. If you had made different choices you might have been able to accomplish this, but you have not done so. It is in the best interest that Lisa is in a home where she knows she is loved forever regardless of what goes on. I here by terminate Ms. Stone's parental rights and free the minor child, Lisa Stone, for adoption. Court dismissed. I would like to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Stokes at the bench please."

Nick and Sara went up to the bench not quite knowing what to expect. Judge Watson said, "Ms. Stokes, I'm impressed that you played the family emergency card in Judge Menendez's court. When I was a young prosecutor, he informed me that I better not try that unless someone was actually dying. I'm ashamed to admit that my son spent several hours at school with an ear infection because of that."

"Well, your Honor, there has been an ongoing agreement with prosecutors, CSIs, cops, and even many defense attorneys that if someone had a real family emergency like a child in the ER that we were going to walk out of his courtroom and go to the press if he pulled that kind of stuff. We all take our jobs seriously, but I had to go be with my daughter in the hospital, especially since her father was not in town to authorize care. I did leave out the part about DCFS having that power too."

"Well, done. I don't get to do this very often, so I'm going to ask Ms. Sanders to get all the adoption proceedings ready and handle all three cases at once. If you don't mind, I'd like to try to schedule it as part of a new program I'm pushing which is Adoption Saturdays. Often adoptions get squished in where we can fit them in, without much ceremony, and bumped for more urgent matters of health or safety. The idea is that we can get judges and court staff to volunteer to do them one Saturday every couple of months, we could spend a day during out best thing and families could get their celebration."

"That would be wonderful, your Honor. We'd love that," Nick answered.

"When is this next one due? I'm guessing that it's a bit of a surprise. My husband and I adopted our oldest two and then our third, who we were never supposed to have, showed up."

"Yes, your Honor. I'm due in late May and it's a very similar situation," Sara answered.

"Well, don't let anyone scare you about any conflicts between the three you are adopting and this one. My husband and I always say that we picked out the first two special and the third a wonderful surprise. They know we loved all of them because after all we went through a fair amount of trouble to get them."

"Thank you, your Honor," Nick and Sara said together.

As they left the courtroom, Nick said, "She's going to be ours and no one can take her away. They are all going to be ours. It's amazing."

"Really amazing! Let's wait until everything is planned and together before we tell everyone. I don't want anyone to be too disappointed if there is some paperwork mess and we can't do it all the same day."

"Sure, that's a good idea."

* * *

**Chapter 19: Chapter 19**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Chapter 19**

**Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!**

Everything was going really well, until Nick walked by Grissom's office and Grissom called out, "Have you seen Sara? I'm going to need her to pull a double."

Nick stepped into Grissom's office, while saying "Gris, Sara can't really pull a double right now. I'll do it."

"Nick, we've all got to make sacrifices for work. The lab needs her. I'm sure you can handle whatever she needs to do. This case involves teenaged girls and I need Sara to work with them."

"Gris, remember Sara's pregnant? Her age makes it a high risk pregnancy. She's wiped out every night. Sara, who used to hardly sleep at all is dead tired by eleven p.m. and needs an alarm to wake her in the morning. I understand sacrifices, but we aren't sacrificing Sara's health or the baby's."

"I'm sorry Nicky. I forgot about that. Of course Sara can't work a double. I'll find someone else."

"It's okay Gris, I know you would never intentionally do anything like that to Sara. It's just that you sometimes forget that the rest of us have things outside the lab that are our highest priority now. You know I love my job, but it's my career. Sara and the kids are my life. Listen, I know you might be working, but Sara and I wanted to invite you for Christmas dinner if you don't have plans."

"Thanks, Nicky. I'd be delighted to join you if I can get away from this place. You are right. You all have things in your life that are more important than you careers. I may forget that, but I'm glad you found that."

"A healthy baby boy. We are going to have a healthy baby boy!" a thoroughly amazed Sara said, as she and Nick left the doctor's office after the amnio and ultrasound.

* * *

"I know Sara, I'm excited. I know everything looks good, but we do need to wait on the results of the amnio to be positive about the healthy part," Nick said.

 

"Yeah, but all the blood tests came back clean, so there's very little chance of anything being wrong, Nick," Sara said.

"I know, Babe. It's going to be wonderful! I just want to be a little cautious until we get the results back. It's just eight days. Let's keep this to ourselves until then"

"Okay…I guess I can wait another week," Sara said.

* * *

Those eight days went by quickly for Nick and Sara. They had Christmas to get ready for, and no matter what he said to Sara, Nick was overjoyed with the thought of having a son. Two boys and two girls was his idea of the perfect family. Of course, three girls and one boy probably would have been just right, too.

 

Sara and Nick were spared having to deal with Lacey's budding relationship with Kevin. Final exams and the Anderson Family Christmas Vacation Trip to Ohio to see Karen's parents would put a dent in the kids being together. Cell phone minutes were going to be burned like crazy.

Sara's meticulous planning skills came in very handy for Christmas. Sara and Nick's family drew Aaron and Suzy's family for the holiday gift exchange. Sara and Suzy exchanged emails with everyone's wish lists, so the shopping was pretty painless. Aaron and Suzy got the books and CDs they wanted, Adam got some action figures, and Lauren got an outfit for her American Girl doll. It was all wrapped and mailed a week before time. Their friends mostly got gifts that could be used such as: bath product gifts sets, or gourmet foods, or flowers.

Sara tried to make Nick pick out gifts for his parents, but he was horrible at it. So, instead she gave him a very specific list. It consisted of video games, gadgets, music, and books that Mike and Lacey wanted. Toys appropriate for Lisa were also listed. She left it to his discretion as to whether or not he braved the stores or order online. From the number of packages that came to the house she suspected he ordered online. Sara decided on a pair of earrings for Jillian, a book for Bill, and a big box of the maverick pears she knew they loved.

At Nick and Sara's prompting, the kids all made gifts for their grandparents. Lisa drew pictures that would fit in frames that Sara had given Bill and Jillian before. Lacey had spent lots of time knitting coasters for her grandmother and golf club covers for her grandfather. Mike had collected pictures from the whole family and scanned the ones that weren't digital, and turned them into a photo collage calendar for his grandparents. Seven months were dedicated to each one of Jillian and Bill's children's families, while the other five were pictures of large family gatherings from both recent years and the past.

Nick supervised wrapping and mailing while Sara had accomplished much of her shopping for the kids. She also managed to pick out maternity clothes with Amy. The girls were easy, Sara could easily get Lacey and Lisa clothes and they would both be quite content. Sara knew that clothes were not high on either Nick or Mike's Christmas lists, but she thought her guys needed some style injected into their wardrobes. Amy had a more appreciative audience in Greg, and Lars was too little to understand Christmas at all.

Down to the last few stocking stuffers, wrapping paper, and candy from Santa, she hoped she could everything at Target. Sara wished as she got the last things on her list, that when she arrived home she'd find that Nick and the kids had dinner ready. Christmas was still several days away, but Sara was done with shopping for everything, but groceries.

* * *

When Sara walked into the house and heard her family laughing, she stashed her bags in the master bedroom before heading into the kitchen where she found Nick, Mike, Lacey, and Lisa making individual pizzas. Every topping that anyone could think of was out. Lisa was patting out a tiny bit of dough into a toddler sized pizza. Mike and Nick were decorating larger pizzas and Lacey was rolling out dough. Lacey spotted Sara first and spoke up, "Sara, I'm rolling one out for you, then you can top it yourself."

 

"Thanks Lacey! I appreciate it. It looks like you're all having fun. What prompted this?"

"Well," Nick started, "I thought everyone could use a little break. We've been working hard and Mike and Lacey have been studying hard. I thought we could use a little break as a family."

"Great idea, Babe," Sara responded brightly as she came up behind Nick and wrapped her arms around him, planting kisses on his neck.

Nick caught Mike rolling his eyes at them, "You're just jealous. Besides, Sara and I don't make faces when you hug your girl." That shut Mike up quickly.

Soon everyone's pizza was in the oven and attention turned to setting the table. Pretty soon the family was sitting down to eat. They talked, joked, and generally caught up on each other's lives. Sara was very impressed with the way Mike and Lacey would pay rapt attention to Lisa's rambling and sometimes nonsensical stories about daycare.

After dinner, the reality of finals hit. Both Mike and Lacey had essays that they wanted help proofreading. Lacey wanted someone to quiz her on Spanish vocabulary words, and Mike wanted some help understanding his current chemistry lesson. Sara was a better proofreader than Nick, so she helped with the essays, while Nick helped with Spanish and Chemistry.

As Nick and Sara were getting ready for bed that night, Nick said, "I don't know how kids without parents with our education could help them with their homework. I'm not sure that I could have helped Mike with chemistry if I didn't still use it occasionally. I always had someone around who had just taken the class if it wasn't something Mom and Cisco were good at."

Sara shrugged, "Well, lots of kids don't do it. Some of them learn how to cope. I spent lots of time bothering teachers for help before or after school when I didn't understand something. Our kids have an edge. That's one reason I'm always happy to help other kids studying here or host group projects. Not to change the subject, but the last day of school is Friday and Christmas is Monday and then Mike and Lacey are off of school until January second. We need to decide how much time we are going to take off to spend with them. Not that they can't look out for themselves."

"Yeah, we need to figure that out. By the way, Martin called me. Lucy is going to be off with the twins the whole time between Christmas and New Years and they have been begging to have Lisa come play. I said we could arrange it sometime."

"Nick, that sounds great. Maybe we could take Mike and Lacey and do something that is not toddler friendly with them that day? I'd usually suggest skiing, but that's out."

"Sara, maybe we should try and pick something that's not physical that is over Lisa's head? We could ask the kids to come up with something."

"Sounds good."

* * *

Finally, the waiting was over. Sara got a call at work telling her that everything was just fine with Baby Boy Stokes. She was so happy, she ended up smiling the whole time she processed the scene of a rather bad hit and run accident. She was thoroughly professional, but dying to see Nick to let him know.

 

When Sara got back to the lab, she was happy to find Nick by himself in the AV lab reviewing surveillance footage. She practically ran in through the door, "I got the call about the lab tests. We are going to have a healthy son!"

"That's wonderful, Sara! Just wonderful!" Nick said. He was so excited to have it official that he pulled her into his lab for a hug. Just then, Warrick came in the lab. He was about to turn around and leave when Nick said, "The baby is a boy, and he's perfectly health!"

Suddenly Nick and Sara's uncharacteristic actions were making sense. "That's wonderful guys. I'm really happy for you."

Sara decided that it was time the whole lab new, so she climbed off of Nick's lap, pulled him with her and went off in search of Greg, Catherine, and Grissom to share the good news.

* * *

Nick was getting some lab results from Greg, who was filling in with Mia out sick, when Greg said, "Hey Nick, do you have a minute?"

 

"Sure, Greggo what's up?"

"Do you think you and Sara could take Lars for an evening sometime? I really need some time alone with Amy. I love Lars and I love being a father, but I'd like us to find some time together to be Amy and Greg, not mommy and daddy. Nick, she called me daddy the other day and Lars wasn't anywhere around."

"Of course we'll take Lars. Y'all can return the favor one day. And listen it took Sara and I a little time to regain our footing after we brought Lisa home. Y'all will get there."

"Thanks, Nick. I'll get back to you about the time and everything. It's pretty cool to find out you're having a son, isn't it? Not that, you know, a daughter wouldn't be nice too."

"Greg, you're absolutely right. You're, absolutely right," Nick said grinning as he left the lab.

* * *

That evening over supper, Nick and Sara told the kids that they were expecting a healthy baby boy. Mike and Nick joked about another boy in the family evening the score. Lacey was just excited.

 

Lisa looked a bit confused and asked, "Will he take my stuff? My stuff's girl stuff."

Sarah smiled, "Well, Peanut, he'll use some of the stuff you've out grown like the crib, the playpen, and some of your old toys, but he's not going to take anything of yours now unless you're done with it. It's going to be a few years before he's really able to do much of anything."

"Okay Mommy," Lisa answered.

As Nick and Sara were doing dishes, Nick said, "You know, Lisa has a point. We'll have to get all new clothes and a bunch of new toys and things for a boy."

"Nick, I'm not planning on dressing our son in dresses, but we have lots of little yellow, green, and white onesies and things left over from Lisa. Plus, I don't remember her infant toys being all that girly. Would it be so terrible is at some point he plays with a doll? I'm sure that he's going to want to do everything that his daddy and his big brother do. So, he might play at cooking dinner with that kitchen set or play at looking after a child with a doll."

"Okay, okay, I get it. You're right. Of course, I don't want our son to think that those things are women's work. I never really thought about little boys playing like that. I never did unless I got roped into it by some girl. But, I never did see Cisco cook dinner or change a diaper."

Nick then went to call his parents and let them know the baby was going to be a healthy boy. He also e-mailed his siblings, as well as his grown nieces and nephews with the news. E-mail was very useful in keeping such a large family connected, plus none of his siblings could complain that he told someone else first.

* * *

That same evening at the Sanders' house, Greg was thinking about how he could try to explain what he was feeling to Amy. Lars went down to sleep easily that night, which left Greg and Amy with some time they didn't normally have. As Amy went to turn on the TV, Greg stopped her and said while fidgeting, "Ames, I asked Nick if he and Sara would watch Lars some evening. He said they'd be happy to. I'd really like for us to spend sometime alone together. I miss being your husband and not just Lars' dad. I understand if you're not ready to be intimate yet, well, I don't understand actually…but it's okay. I just want to talk and laugh and be together." Greg stopped talking and looked at Amy.

 

"That sounds really, really nice. I know I've gotten wrapped up in being a mom. This is just kind of overwhelming sometimes and I feel like such a cow," Amy answered as her eyes started to tear.

"Ames, its okay," he told her as he pulled her close to him, almost into his lap. "Nick said it took awhile for him and Sara to get back on track after they brought Lisa home. I think it's normal, but I don't understand the cow thing. Is it about nursing? Because we could switch Lars to formula. You've already done it a lot longer than most mothers."

"It's not really the nursing, although, sometimes I think Lars views me primarily as a milk machine. There's baby weight I haven't lost yet and stretch marks and things sag that didn't used to sag and . . ."

"Shush," said Greg putting a finger to Amy's lips. "You are so beautiful to me. You've got curves you never had before that I love and anything else just doesn't matter, because it's you I love. Any changes in your body are the result of the best thing you've ever given me. How could I possibly mind? If you want, we could start talking evening walks with Lars to get a little more exercise, but only if you want. I love you just the way you are. Okay?"

"Okay," Amy told him with a smile even with tears glistening on her face. "While we're on the subject, I want to wait awhile before we give Lars a little brother or sister, and I can't . . ."

"I'll stop at the drugstore sometime. Okay? I'd like to wait awhile too before we do this again. Now let's go to bed and cuddle before his Highness summons us again for food and a dry diaper," Greg suggested while giving Amy another hug.

"Sounds very nice," she said while moving off the couch and towards the bedroom.

* * *

**Chapter 20: Chapter 20**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Chapter 20**

**Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!**

Christmas Eve arrived and the Stokes' house was full of last minute Christmas preparations. The plan was to attend the local church's five o'clock family Christmas Eve service because while Sara wasn't really a believer, it wasn't Christmas to Nick without a Christmas church service, and then a family dinner. They would open family presents on Christmas Eve and presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Then much of the lab family would be attending Christmas dinner the next day.

Nick was struggling to get Lisa into a pair of tights when Lacey, all dressed for church, showed up in the doorway, "Let me do that. You finish getting ready."

"Thanks Lace," Nick said as he turned the twisted up tights over to Lacey. He went downstairs to get ready happy that his oldest daughter was usually so eager to help out with her younger sister. She spared him having to figure out some of the girly parts of Lisa's life.

* * *

As Nick and his family settled into a pew at church, Nick was reminded of just how much he had to be thankful for this Christmas. The coming year would be the year that their family was complete. They'd be able to adopt all three kids and the baby that he and Sara thought they might never have would arrive. He said a silent prayer of thanks. Then the service began with the familiar lessons, carols, and it truly began to feel like Christmas to him.

 

After church, the family put the finishing touches on the Christmas Eve shrimp scampi and sat down to eat. Lisa was just about bouncing out of her high chair with anticipation. After dinner, dessert, and dishes, they would open the family presents and to Lisa that seemed like a really long time.

Finally, everyone settled around the Christmas tree with Christmas music playing in the background. Before the presents could be unwrapped, pictures of everyone all dressed up needed to be taken. Then it was time to open gifts, although candid shots still flashed.

One of Sara's favorite Christmas traditions growing up was that everyone got new pajamas to open on Christmas Eve, which they were expected to wear Christmas morning. This year Sara had found green and blue plaid flannel pajamas that matched for all of them. Nick and Mike's enthusiasm looked a little forced, but Sara knew they would be good sports and wear them the next morning.

There were piles of presents. Nick and Sara exchanged sentimental gifts including a locket with family pictures in it for Sara, and a rare edition of one of Audubon's bird guides for Nick. The most popular gifts that Nick and Sara gave their children were a Fischer Price Little People Dollhouse for Lisa, an outfit Lacey had been dying to have, and a new video game that Mike wanted that had just been released and was in limited supply. Mike, Lacey, and Lisa combined their money (or in Lisa's case her card making ability) to get special gifts for their parents. Careful bargain hunting allowed them to get Nick a wireless weather station that included a rain gauge, barometer, wind speed gauge, two outdoor, and two indoor temperature sensors. It was a gadget guy's dream. For Sara, a gift certificate for a pregnant mom massage, as well as some aroma therapy bath products. Mike and Lacey also produced a coupon book for Nick and Sara that included coupons redeemable for baby sitting, diaper changes when the new baby arrived, car washes, and making dinners.

Lisa was fading fast, so once the presents were unwrapped Sara reminded her that the sooner she went to bed, the sooner Santa would come. She also was reminded that the digital clock in her room had to say at least 6:00am before she was allowed to get anyone up. After Lisa was in bed, the wrapping paper was picked up, and unwrapped presents either taken away or put back under the tree. Nick suggested that maybe Mike and Lacey could read or listen to music in their rooms since it was already eleven o'clock and he and Sara had to play Santa.

Sara had organized things before hand, so it didn't take long to put out the presents from Santa and fill everyone's stockings. Then Nick shooed her off to their bedroom, so he could add a few surprises for her. Sara was happy for that because it allowed her to get into her Christmas Eve surprise for Nick. When Nick came into the bedroom, Sara was lounging on the bed in a new lacey nightgown. He stood there speechless for a second as Sara said, "Merry Christmas, Nicky."

Nick closed and locked the door behind him. He began shedding his tie, shoes, socks, and belt as he went to join Sara on the bed. "Merry Christmas," he said as he began kissing her. Taking their time they thoroughly enjoyed each other's bodies and made love slowly. As they were lying cuddled in the afterglow, with Nick's hand splayed across Sara's growing belly, he felt something move. Sara seemed a bit surprised, but Nick just grinned.

"That's the first time, I've felt anything more than a flutter. It's pretty incredible isn't it?"

Nick had moved both hands to Sara's belly hoping to feel the baby move again. "It's absolutely incredible. It's kind of amazing to think my hand was there the first time you felt him kick. There it goes again! We didn't get him riled up, did we?"

Sara laughed, "I have no idea. Maybe he just wanted to give his daddy a Christmas gift. We should get some sleep though; Lisa will have us up early."

Nick yawned, "You're right, Sar'." He moved off the bed to retrieve their Christmas pajamas from the dresser, so they would be properly attired when Lisa came bounding in. Both of them dressed and spooned together in their usual sleep positions.

* * *

Lisa got everyone up at 6:15am, excited to see what Santa had brought. Sara took pictures of everyone in their Christmas pajamas. They ate cinnamon rolls, the grown-ups read their Christmas books (everyone gets a book from Santa), and Lisa played with her new toys. Her two favorite gifts were a 'Little People' doll house and a Brio train set. Mike and Nick also seemed to enjoy the train set too.

 

Eventually Nick wandered into the kitchen to start the turkey, while Sara would cook meat for the family Nick didn't like to ask her to do that. He also found it amusing that Sara found no need for an alternative main course, but was happy with traditional holiday side dishes. As long as some stuffing was made with vegetable broth and kept away from any cooked in the turkey Sara was happy.

While Nick stuffed the turkey, Sara began to make roll dough. Then she started making pie crust for pumpkin pie. Catherine was bringing pecan pie. Finally, she mixed up the pie filling, added it to the pie pans, and put them in the bottom of the double oven to cook. She figured that the pies would be done in time for her to start the rolls.

Sara was very tired, so she decided that she had time to take a quick nap. She asked Lacey to take the pies out of the oven when they were done, as well as shape the rolls and put them in the oven. Shaping the rolls was Lacey and Lisa's 'thing', since they enjoyed playing with the dough.

* * *

She woke up far later than she had thought she would. She found that Nick and kids had already had lunch and had started working on the rest of Christmas dinner. Even Lisa was in on the act snapping the ends off of asparagus. Lacey announced that if someone would get the good china down from the high shelves, she and Lisa would take care of decorating and setting the table. Sara readily agreed since that was not an area she felt very skilled in. Pretty soon everything that could be done ahead was done.

 

Sara went to check on the table and discovered that Lacey had Lisa decorate place cards for everyone and created a center piece from holly and pine boughs. Lacey was putting the finishing touches on setting the table, when Sara came over and hugged her, "Thanks so much for setting such a pretty table and entertaining your sister. It was a big help." Then Sara turned her attention to Lisa picking her up, "Thank you for making such pretty place cards and helping Lacey with the table. Let's say we go wash all the sticky stuff off and go put on your pretty Christmas dress."

Lisa responded by giving Sara a kiss and burying her sticky face into Sara's shoulder. The stickiness was a combination of cinnamon rolls, candy from Santa, and glue from place card making. Sara took her upstairs, gave her a bath, and dressed her.

When Sara walked downstairs with Lisa, she found her husband and son sort of ready and watching a football game. They were wearing dress pants and undershirts, with their dress shirts and ties draped over the backs of chairs. She smiled at her guys that were so into the Cowboy's game that they moved in their seats like they were playing and blocked out everything else.

Lisa did manage to get through to them by standing right in front of Nick and twirling around saying, "Look at my pretty dress, Daddy!"

To his credit Nick, managed to switch his focus to his daughter long enough to tell her she looked gorgeous. That satisfied Lisa and she went and amused herself with her toys.

Sara finished getting herself ready just minutes before their guests arrived. Greg, Amy, and Lars were first to arrive. Almost immediately, Greg and Lars were down on the floor with Lisa playing with her train set. Well, Greg was playing with the train set. Lars was trying to fit his whole hand in his mouth and drooling, while his father was telling him about trains. Pretty soon Nick and Mike joined them and were working on using all the pieces to build an elaborate set-up.

Amy gravitated to the kitchen to help Sara and Lacey with last minute tasks. Sara sent Lacey out to get drink orders from everyone, with orders to bring Nick in to deal with the wine. As Amy helped Sara put some appetizers on a tray, she asked, "Is the train set was for Lisa or for Nick and Mike?"

Sara laughed, "Well, Lisa asked Santa for a train. The one she pointed out to me in a store was far less elaborate than this. Nick picked out all the upgrades. The fact it entertains Mike too is a bonus."

Then Grissom arrived followed shortly, by Warrick, Catherine, and Lindsey. To a keen observer, which Nick and Sara were, it appeared that Warrick and Catherine had gotten closer. He touched her a little more, helped her with her coat and other little things. While carving the turkey and bringing out the last few dishes, Nick and Sara discussed the things they saw and decided to try and do more digging.

Dinner with their Las Vegas 'family' was going well, although Lars insisted that one of his parents hold him at all times making it hard for them to eat. Lindsey was telling everyone about her first couple of months at Rice, which by coincidence was Nick's alma mater. Nick suspected that it was a heavily edited version of her first several months at college given that she was in the middle of pledging a sorority, but he knew that almost no one tells their parent and surrogate aunts and uncles everything about college.

Just before the plates were about to be cleared for dessert, Warrick spoke up, "Catherine and I wanted to let you guys know that we are dating, but don't worry Gris we plan to leave it at home." Everyone expressed their congratulations.

Mike ate his dessert with the kind of relish that only a teenage boy can pull off. When he finished, he offered to hold Lars so Greg and Amy could eat and drink their coffee in relative peace. Lars went happily to Mike who played with him a bit until Lars settled in and was content to just be in Mike's arms and play with his fingers. After dessert, when everyone was getting up to clear the table and move to someplace more comfortable to sit, it became clear even to Mike that Lars needed his diaper changed.

Mike walked over to Greg holding Lars, "I'm pretty sure this little guy needs to be changed. Would you be willing to show me how, so I know when the new baby gets here?"

"Sure, man. It's easiest to change him on your folk's bed. I'll go get his diaper bag and meet you guys in there."

"Thanks, Greg," Mike said.

Greg met Mike and Lars in the master bedroom, and patiently walked Mike through changing a newborn's diaper, including the need to keep little boys covered at all times, unless you were willing to risk a shower. "You'll be great at this Mike. You are more than welcome to practice on Lars any time," Greg told him.

* * *

**Chapter 21: Chapter 21**

* * *

**Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing**

**Rating: Teen**

**Chapter 21**

**Thanks to Shannon for beta reading!**

The day after Christmas, Nick and Sara went back to work. It was a light day for them, with no new cases, so they were able to go over some cold cases to see if they missed anything or had any new information. All day Nick had the feeling that he was coming down with something, but tried to ignore it hoping that an early night might stave off whatever it was. At lunch he went to the drug store to get some Zicam in hopes of avoiding getting sick.

If Sara needed any proof that Nick was coming down with something she had it when he didn't even challenge her when he said he looked tired and that maybe she should drive. Nick was not a great passenger. He liked being in control.

Nick and Sara walked in the front door and discovered that a fort had been constructed in the family room using sheets, couch cushions, and some chairs from the dinning room. Lisa came running out of the fort to greet them. The sounds from the TV indicated that Mike and Lacey were watching one of the DVDs they got for Christmas from the fort. One of the DVDs, Nick and Sara would have preferred they not watch with Lisa. Nick picked Lisa up, hugged her and noticed that she was still in her pajamas. He thought that was a little odd, but he was tired and not feeling all that great, so he didn't think anymore about it and set Lisa back down.

Nick went into the kitchen, where he found Sara staring at a sink full of dirty dishes and rather messy counters. It looked like Mike and Lacey had made lunch and breakfast without bothering to clean up. Sara was looking very on edge. Nick sensed the holidays had taken a lot out of his pregnant wife and that their teenagers weren't helping any. Since he was feeling pretty crummy himself he said, "We'll order Chinese and then have a little discussion about what we expect over break. Then they can clean up. Okay?"

Sara nodded, "I don't know why all of these things are getting to me. They're just teenagers, they'll do stuff like this. I'm acting like a stereotypical tired pregnant woman, with mood swings. I hate that."

Nick pulled Sara into a hug and rubbed her back, "It's alright. There is some truth in the moodiness and that's fine. It won't last forever. Plus, just because they are acting like exasperating teenagers doesn't mean we have to like it. Why don't you order dinner? I'll get the kids to pick up the fort in the family room."

Nick went into the family room and saw that Lacey and Mike were taking the fort down; but that they were both still in their pajamas and that the fort had covered a mess of empty glasses, crushed chips, and other things. Nick was starting to feel even worse. He took a deep breath and said, "Dinner will be here soon. I expect all three of you to be showered and dressed and this room picked up by then. After dinner we are going to have a conversation about what we expect from you during break. I suggest that Lacey, you get Lisa cleaned up and Mike you finish up in here. You have about thirty minutes."

Nick went back into the kitchen to find Sara starting to clean up. He reached into the cabinet to grab some Advil, "Leave it alone. They should clean it up. The family room is a mess and all of them are still in their pajamas. I told them I expected the family room to be picked up and all three of them showered and dressed when dinner arrives in thirty minutes and that after dinner we would discuss what we expect over break."

"Thanks Nick," Sara said as she sat down at the kitchen chair. "How are you feeling? I know you're coming down with something."

Nick shrugged and sat down next to Sara, "Not great, but I'm hoping a hot shower and a good night's sleep will take care of things."

Dinner was a rather quiet affair until Lisa accidentally knocked over her milk and said, "Fuck."

Everyone froze. Sara was fast on her feet and got a sponge to wipe up, "Lisa, that not a nice word. We don't say that word in this family. Where did you hear it?"

"I'm sorry, Mommy. I won't say it anymore. I heard it in the movie we watched today."

Mike and Lacey looked down at their plates hoping the floor would open up and swallow them, knowing they weren't going to be so lucky.

Nick said, "That's alright, Lisa. You didn't know. Just don't say it again. Why don't you finish your dinner so you can go play?" As he spoke he directed a stern look at the older two.

"Thanks, Daddy."

Very soon dinner was finished, and the table was cleared. Everyone, except for Lisa, was back at the table. Sara started the conversation by saying, "We were disappointed in what we came home to today. I know it's your break and that you want to relax, but it's not fair for Nick and me to come home to a big mess."

"I'm sorry. We weren't thinking," Lacey apologized.

"We should have known better," Mike said.

Then it was Nick's turn to speak. "We expect you to use better discretion around your sister. That includes making better choices about what TV or movies you watch when she is around. You don't have to watch cartoons with her, but you need to pick things with minimal sex, violence, and swearing in them. Stick to movies that are no higher rated than PG. Okay?"

Mike and Lacey nodded.

Sara spoke up again, "So, we expect you guys to be dressed and showered by the time we come home at least for a civilized dinner. We also expect dirty dishes to either be washed or in the dishwasher. Lisa has a play date with Maren and Aiden tomorrow, so she won't be around then. Nick and I will be taking some time off, but think about whether or not you want to be responsible for her. We can take her to daycare. It's not a problem. She loves it there and we are paying for it anyway. Maybe you'd rather spend time with her some other time? Just think about it."

"Lucy is coming for Lisa at 10:30am tomorrow. We'll make sure she's dressed and everything, but we need one of you to make sure she gets off okay. Now why don't you go get started on those dishes and cleaning up the kitchen?"

Mike and Lacey complied after apologizing once again to Nick and Sara.

* * *

Nick was planning on taking a hot shower, but when he saw Sara absent mindedly rubbing her back, he had a different idea…

 

With Sara lying back against his chest while they soaked in a nice hot bubble bath, they merely enjoyed the hot soothing water and each other. Nick's mind was wandering, he thought about where he was and how intimate this was. This part of his relationship with Sara had been kind of a surprise to him.

While he had had his fair share of relationships, and probably more than his fair share of meaningless sex partners…Sara was the first woman he'd lived with. He had never realized how much joy and intimacy there was in everyday things. If when he was twenty, he had been told that someday he'd be soaking in a bubble bath with a woman who looked like Sara with no intention of sex, he'd have laughed. If he'd been told that she was pregnant with his child, he'd have been kind of freaked out, because after all, there were women and there were mothers. Although, being the youngest of seven children it should have been obvious that mothers did indeed still have sex. If he'd been told that at thirty, he would have a glimmer of understanding women. If he'd been told that the woman was his pregnant wife, he would have thought he'd understood. In his mind getting married, settling down, and having kids was just that…settling. Giving up things like mind blowing sex for a family when you were done with exciting. His sisters had made sure he realized that a pregnant woman, especially one he was responsible for deserved pampering.

Being with Sara had taught him that 'settling down' was not settling at all. Granted they went out much less and it required more planning, but his life was richer. Most of the time Sara just  _got_  him and he got her. It was like being with her made him the best version of himself. He felt completely at home with her. It was like all his other relationships had been pale copies and now he had the real thing. It was comfortable, but never boring. He finally was able to open up about some things and let them go. Sara knew everything there was to know about him and it was freeing.

Nick's head had started to pound again, and the water was getting cold. He realized that Sara had actually fallen asleep. He woke her gently. They dried off, changed for bed, and were asleep spooned together almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

* * *

Nick woke up in the middle of night with a terrible coughing fit. His whole body ached and his head felt like it was going to explode. Somehow in the last couple hours he had become in his opinion a snot factory. Sara woke up too, said he felt warm and insisted on taking his temperature. He was running a slight fever.

 

"Sorry Babe, but no work for you tomorrow. I'd say that your flu shot didn't take and you've got the flu. Let me get you some medicine," Sara said getting out of bed to rummage in the medicine cabinet.

Nick didn't even argue which was probably just another testament to how crummy he felt. He thought he should feel slightly offended that his wife came back to the bedroom with medicine and a glass of water , helped him to sit up, and held that glass for him like she did for Lisa when she was sick, but he was too tired to think it about it and went back to sleep.

Nick awoke to a quiet, empty house. There was a note from Lacey leaning up against a glass of apple juice letting him know where everyone was for the day. He drank the juice, considered getting up, but went right back to sleep.

Hours later, Sara shook Nick awake, which took some effort. She helped him sit up and put a tray with chicken soup and crackers in front of him. "Nick, you really need to eat something for me, Baby."

Nick complied happy to see that she had put the soup in a mug so he didn't have to use a spoon. He drank the soup and ate some of the crackers. Then he let Sara coax him out of bed, into the shower, and into a fresh pair of boxers and a clean t-shirt. He did feel a little better like she said he would, but he still was dying to go back to sleep.

The whole Stokes family got the flu between Christmas and New Years that year. Sara was the sickest because being pregnant she just had to ride it out. She couldn't take anything to make her feel better. Nick and Sara spent many nights with a sick Lisa sleeping between them. Normally, they tried to discourage that, but neither of them really had the energy when she was at her sickest to get-up and go upstairs to check on her.

By the time New Year's Eve rolled around, Nick was back at work, although not quite full speed. Sara was still sick, but almost better. Lisa was almost back to normal and had more energy than anyone in the whole family. Mike and Lacey were still too sick to be allowed to go out, which disappointed them, but eased Nick and Sara's fears. They knew their kids were too smart to drink and drive or to get into the car with someone who had been drinking, but New Year's Eve in Vegas always resulted in numerous drunk driving fatalities. Nick and Sara were happy that Mike and Lacey would be home and could not end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

To celebrate New Year's Eve, Nick and Sara had planned a family night of movies and games. It was unfortunate that it took everyone getting sick for it to happen, but Nick thought that it might be one of the last times they would do something like this for New Year's Eve. They probably could decree a few more family nights when nothing big was going on, but teenagers wanted their own lives and their own celebrations.

They kicked the night off with a game of  _Trivial Pursuit_. Mike and Sara were one team and Lacey and Nick were the other. Lisa bounced back and forth between the teams as she felt. During discussions about the correct answer she would agree with her brother or sister and nod vigorously while possible answers were discussed. By about ten o'clock the first game ended with Mike and Sara being victorious, Lacey and Nick demanded a rematch, while Lisa had fallen asleep on the couch clutching her stuffed bunny and looking angelic.

The second game was neck in neck the whole way through. In the end, Sara's limited awareness of pop culture from her teenage years hurt her team and cost them the game. Nick and Lacey won. Just as they finished the game it was time to turn on the TV to see the countdown to midnight.

2011 had been a big year for the Stokes Family and 2012 was looking like it might be an even bigger one.


End file.
